Catastrophic Ronald Acuña Jr. injury update makes Braves uphill climb more steep

Ronald Acuña Jr. gave Atlanta Braves fans reason for cautious optimism after he had to leave Sunday's game with a non-contact knee injury. He didn't hear a pop, the way his right knee popped when he tore his ACL in 2021. It felt more like when he strained his ACL in 2018. He expected to miss a month...

He was wrong.

On Sunday night, the Braves announced the last thing anyone in Atlanta wanted to hear: Acuña suffered a "complete tear of the ACL in his left knee."

Acuña will undergo surgery in the near future and has been ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Ronald Acuña Jr. injury update is worst-case scenario for Braves

The Braves were already performing below expectations this year. A slowish start morphed into a straight-up slump. They haven't been able to keep up with the red-hot Phillies at the top of the NL East, falling six games back. While they had the best record in baseball for a minute there, they're now behind six other teams, most shockingly including the Royals.

Losing Acuña for the whole season will put the pressure on the rest of the lineup to finally wake up. It will help getting Sean Murphy and Austin Riley back from injury but Atlanta needs Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia, Jarred Kelenic and Michael Harris II to get things right.

This is Acuña's second season-ending ACL injury. He tore the ACL in his right knee in 2021. The Braves went on to win the World Series without him. So all hope is not lost.

However, it isn't as easy as just losing Acuña and winning it all. The Braves made impactful moves at the MLB trade deadline that season to propel them to the mountain top. Their path there just got steeper, but it's still possible for one of the best rosters in the league to overcome this massive setback.