Ronald Acuña Jr. may return from his season-ending knee injury sooner rather than later for the Atlanta Braves.
Few players benefited from the MLB lockout quite like Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.
Acuña has not played in a game for the Braves since tearing his ACL on the warning track down in Miami right before the All-Star break. Though it felt like season over for the Braves in that moment, Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos was able to seemingly rebuild this team on the fly. He made a series of trades that catapulted the Braves to an improbable World Series title.
With Acuña on the mend, here is the latest on when the Atlanta star may be returning to the team.
Ronald Acuña Jr. injury update: Braves star return is gonna be May?
Marly Rivera of ESPN spoke with Acuña’s trainers down in his native Venezuela. The belief is he could be making his Braves return in May after rehabbing very hard this winter. Obviously, the Braves are not going to rush him back. The good news is he may only miss part of a month of the regular season. When healthy, he is a top-five talent in baseball and an emerging MLB superstar.
As the Braves defend their first World Series title in 26 years, the return of Acuña to the lineup will be an interesting wrinkle in the first half of the season. He may not have played at all for the Braves in the second half of last year, but he played an integral part in their run to the NLCS in 2020 and their first three NL East division crowns with this core. Of course, he missed out in 2021.
Ultimately, the Braves’ future is incredibly bright with key players like Acuña, Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley under contract going forward. The Braves need to figure out what they want to do with Dansby Swanson playing on an expiring, as well as the elephant in the room with that being Freddie Freeman having gone to free agency. The return of Acuña cannot happen soon enough.
For Acuña to only miss a month is fantastic news for the defending World Series champions.