Braves had injury concerns about Ronald Acuña Jr. even before ACL
By Ian Levy
Ronald Acuña Jr.'s season-ending knee injury is a major blow to the Atlanta Braves, the kind of unfortunate bad luck that you can't really consciously avoid or prepare for beyond making sure your lineup has enough depth to survive a Black Swan injury.
Luckily for the Braves, they're as prepared as they possible could be. Even without Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider, they have plenty of talent — Chris Sale is helping hold the rotation together, Marcell Ozuna, Matt Olson and Travis d'Arnaud are raking and Acuña has said he still thinks the Braves can win the World Series without him.
If they are able to pull that off, one of the players they'll need to step up is outfielder Adam Duvall, who is currently hitting just .196 but has hit 5 home runs and will help fill in during Acuña's absence. According to Jon Heyman at the New York Post, the Braves picked up Duvall this offseason specifically because of a concern about Acuña's right knee, ironically not the one he ultimately injured. He tore the ACL in his right knee in 2021 but made a full recovery.
Adam Duvall could help the Braves buy time
The Braves are likely to be buyers at the trade deadline but plugging in Duvall will give them at least a little bit of breathing room and a chance to assess whether pitching or hitting is a bigger need. Atlanta won't want to completely empty out their war chest of trade assets in a somewhat longshot World Series bid without Acuña. Instead of having to panic and trade immediately to fill a hole or risk losing too much ground in the standings they can take their time.
The Braves are currently 31-23 and trail the Philadelphia Phillies by 6.5 games in the NL East. They have a relatively soft spot coming up in their schedule with a three-game set against the A's, a pair against the Red Sox and four games against the Nationals before a three-game series against the Orioles.
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