Who is the Atlanta Braves’ most important player in a 60-game season?
By John Buhler
If any Atlanta Braves’ star must have a great season, it’s Ronald Acuña Jr.
Who cares how long the 2020 MLB season is? It’s Ronald Acuña Jr.’s for the taking!
The Atlanta Braves should have one of the better teams in the National League this season. After a lengthy rebuilding process, Atlanta won the NL East back-to-back seasons in 2018 and 2019. Not since the very end of the Bobby Cox “Team of the ’90s” dynasty had the Braves repeated in the division. Sadly, all 2019 reminded us was more of the same in terms of October futility.
It was weird to see Atlanta have a postseason series lead. It was even weirder to experience Worst Inning Ever at the FanSided Editorial office in River North, Chicago. There was not enough Seagrams vodka in the world to help me forget yet another painstakingly horrendous Atlanta sports loss. You’d think I’d be numb to this kind of disappointment by now, but here we are.
So who else could have predicted that it’d be almost a year since I got to watch a Braves baseball game that counted. If it’s a 60-game season MLB commissioner Rob Manfred wants, then that’s what America will get out of its pastime. And if any Brave needs to step up big time in these five-dozen baseball games, it has to be without question Acuña. It’s his turn to become NL MVP.
2020 means it is MVP season for the Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr.
Sure, Atlanta will need to lean on first baseman Freddie Freeman to hit well over .300 and not miss at start. Does the “Calgary Flame” Mike Soroka need to give the Braves precisely one dozen quality starts? If his 2020 ERA isn’t at or below 2.50, we’ve got a serious problem on our hands in Braves Country, folks. Freeman and Soroka need to be great, but Acuña must be exceptional.
The last time baseball had an abbreviated season, the Braves won the World Series. It was a quarter of a century ago and nobody cared about baseball because of the 1994 Players’ Strike. Winning their lone World Series during a strike-shortened season is so unbelievably Atlanta sports, it’s ridiculous. If the world wants to put an asterisk next to 2020, whatever. Just win it.
As for Acuña, he must play with a crashing sense of urgency. We don’t need any more of that Andruw Jones lollygagging crapola. Every time you step out of the dugout and onto the field, you are not only expected to perform, but help win the city of Atlanta its second World Series championship. Just try to beat every team you play every night you take the field for the Braves.
Atlanta has not had a player quite like Acuña…arguably ever. This is the same Braves franchise that has National Baseball Hall of Fame plaque after National Baseball Hall of Fame plaque, almost all with that beautiful A atop the cap…well, expect for Greg Maddux because he wanted to have his cake and eat it, too. What did you ever win with those lovable losers anyway?
Acuña is still in his early 20s. His star potential is manifesting into star power. The team he plays for has its best chance of winning a World Series since 2003. As it is with any big league club this year, there is no margin for error. Baseball might be a game of failure, but undeniable dynamism is the great separator in a 60-game season. The Braves are swimming in that with Acuña.
From 162 down to 60, the Braves will go as far as their superstar Acuña will take them this year.