Braves fell backward into Ronald Acuña Jr. replacement in at least one way

For almost a month now, the majority of the oxygen spent talking about the Atlanta Braves and their outlook for the remainder on the 2024 season has been focused on one central question: How does the club replace star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.? It's a fair question, to be sure. Even with Acuña off to a slow start by his standards prior to suffering a torn ACL, replacing the reigning NL MVP is no small task.

And it's a difficult task that was only made harder when Michael Harris II also hit the IL with a hamstring injury and an uncertain timetable. Subsequently, most of the solutions presented for the Braves to fill these holes have been looking toward the trade deadline, and understandably so. After all, Alex Anthopoulos proved his ability in 2021 when Acuña went down by trading for a platoon replacement.

What may help Anthopoulos and the Braves, however, is that they've already stumbled upon -- most likely by necessity -- at least one area in which they can replace Acuña. Namely, they may have figured out how to fill the leadoff spot in their loaded lineup.

Jarred Kelenic thriving taking over Braves leadoff spot

Five games ago, manager Brian Snitker put 2024 newcomer Jarred Kelenic -- acquried in an offseason trade with the Seattle Mariners -- in the leadoff spot of the lineup. Since that second game of their series agains the Tampa Bay Rays, Kelenic has been lights-out, posting a .931 OPS and, perhaps most importantly, helping propel the Braves to a 4-1 record over those last five games.

As the new Braves leadoff hitter, Kelenic has a hit in every game and, overall, has gone 7-for-23 with two home runs, a double, three RBI and three runs scored. And again, Atlanta has been winning since the change was made, including scoring seven or more runs in each of the three games in which Kelenic has notched an extra-base hit.

Now, of course, this is small-sample-size theater for Kelenic and the Braves. Before we go ahead and call this a season-long solution for not having Acuña, we may want to see more from the former Mariners top prospect. At the same time, however, this could be a huge blessing for Atlanta at the trade deadline.

While filling out the outfield depth beyond recently calling up Ramon Laureano when it comes to the trade market is certainly in the cards for the Braves, they also have to take a long look at upgrading the fifth spot in the rotation with Spencer Strider also out. If Anthopoulos isn't forced to look for an all-out full platoon of outfielders again, that gives the organization more flexibility to operate.

We should still be in wait-and-see mode with Kelenic in the leadoff spot but the early returns suggest that replacing Acuña may not be as heavy of a lift for the remainder of this season as previously thought.