3 Atlanta Braves who could steal NL MVP from Ronald Acuña Jr.

Ronald Acuña Jr. had a season to remember in 2023. The 26-year-old slashed .337/.416/.596 with 41 home runs and 106 RBI. He tacked on a league-leading 73 stolen bases and won the NL MVP with ease. Acuña was historically great from start to finish and will look to top that in 2024.

After an injury scare to begin Spring Training, Acuña is fully healthy and ready to roll. Atlanta's success will be based on what they can do in October, but when it comes to the regular season, the Braves have as good of a chance as anyone to win another MVP Award.

Acuña, being the best player on the team and arguably the National League makes him the MVP frontrunner, but the Atlanta Braves have several players capable of stealing that trophy from Acuña while keeping it in the same city.

3) Matt Olson can win the NL MVP if he has another big power year

Acuña took home the MVP, and rightfully so, but in many other years, Matt Olson would've been in MVP consideration with the year he had.

After a bit of a rocky first season in Atlanta, the 29-year-old slashed .283/.389/.604 with a league-leading 54 home runs and 139 RBI. Not only did Olson lead all of baseball in home runs, but he set a Braves single-season record with those 54 long balls. Pretty impressive considering the fact that this franchise rostered Hank Aaron.

Olson won't hit for the average Acuña will and certainly won't steal bases like Acuña, but if he has another monster power year, who's to say he can't win an MVP Award? If he hits another 50+ home runs or even pushes 60, that'll be really hard to ignore even if he doesn't have the all-around stats compared to players like Acuña.

2) Austin Riley's all-around play will always put him in MVP contention

Austin Riley has quietly cemented himself as a perennial NL MVP candidate. He hasn't won one or even been a finalist yet, but he's finished in the top seven in each of the last three seasons. Riley having a career year could catapult him into being an MVP finalist or even an MVP winner.

This past season was another outstanding one for the 26-year-old. He slashed .281/.345/.516 with 37 home runs and 97 RBI in 159 games. He tacked on 32 doubles and 328 total bases, three more than the 325 that led the league back in 2022. He was an All-Star, won a Silver Slugger, and finished seventh in the NL MVP balloting. Not too shabby.

Riley will once again hit right in the middle of Atlanta's order. He'll presumably hit third, behind the star-studded duo of Acuña and Ozzie Albies, and in front of the power bats of Olson and Marcell Ozuna. This will give Riley a chance to drive in plenty of runs hitting behind Acuña and Albies while also scoring plenty of runs hitting in front of two sluggers.

Riley has been remarkably consistent in each of the last three seasons. If he can step it up just a tick he'll be in the conversation once again, if not a favorite to win the MVP.

1) Spencer Strider looks to be on a mission in 2024

Often the MVP Award goes to position players, but pitchers can still win it. Two pitchers (excluding Shohei Ohtani) have won it since 2000, with Justin Verlander taking home AL MVP honors in 2011 and Clayton Kershaw winning the NL MVP Award in 2014. It's rare, but it can happen.

For a pitcher to win the MVP, he'd have to do something historic. Verlander did that when he took home the MVP Award, winning the pitching Triple Crown. Kershaw didn't, but he went 21-3 with a sparkling 1.77 ERA. If any pitcher is going to win the award this season, Spencer Strider has the best shot.

Strider is only entering his third full season but he's already established himself as one of the premier strikeout artists in the game. Last season he led the league with a remarkable 281 strikeouts in 186.2 innings of work. What if he gets to 300? That, with a much lower ERA than the 3.86 mark he had in 2023 gives him a chance.

It might sound unreasonable to ask for Strider to bring his ERA down by a full run, but that'd simply involve him just pitching better against bad teams. Strider struggled immensely against sub-.500 teams, for whatever reason. He allowed five runs or more in a start five times last season. All five came against teams that finished below .500.

Let's say Strider posts a sub-3.00 ERA and strikes out 300+ batters. That has to put him squarely in MVP discussions, right? He showed off his new curveball in Spring Training and the results were outstanding, as Strider allowed just two runs in 22.2 innings of work and struck out 35 batters. Let's see if he can carry that dominance into the regular season.