Ronald Acuña Jr. is giving Braves a surprising leg-up off the field

Ronald Acuña Jr. just might be the piece that bridges this era of Atlanta Braves baseball into the future, and beyond. Fresh off his first NL MVP season, the Venezuelan outfield sensation is a pillar in the Latin American baseball community. Many young kids growing up in and around Venezuela idolize him, none more so than Atlanta's top free-agent signing in Jose Perdomo out of his native country.

When speaking to Perdomo's love and respect for Acuña, Braves Latian American scout Jonathan Cruz commented on the team's latest signee's wishes to wear No. 13 in the minor leagues. No, Atlanta is not giving up Acuña's precious jersey number, nor should they, nor does Perdomo even want to wear that at the big-league level one day. His dream is to play alongside his idle on the same ball field.

While other deeper-pocketed franchises will always do their best to outspend Atlanta in free agency, the Braves have long had great success in recruiting kids out of high school in South America and in the Caribbean. Don't think for a second that having Andruw Jones starring in the Atlanta outfield all those years did not positively impact the Braves' future. Just look at Ozzie Albies manning second.

As long as the Braves employ Acuña and he continues to shine, Atlanta will have a distinct advantage.

Once again, the Braves not only have one of the biggest baseball brands in the United States because of the Superstation days, but because of Latin stars' success like Albies, Acuña and Jones.

Ronald Acuña Jr.'s stardom is a positive recruiting tool for Atlanta Braves

Look. Teams like the Braves are always going to look for ways to field an even better team. Atlanta may covet home-grown talent more than anything, as they know what type of player they are working with, as well as not having to pay a gross premium to get them there in free agency. Nailing the MLB Amateur Draft is critical as well, but signing players out of Latin America is right in their wheelhouse.

Atlanta is not the only MLB franchise proficient in this, but then again, you cannot put a price on having a player hailing from that part of the world like Acuña from Venezuela, or Albies from Curacao for that matter. Cruz is right in that it plays very well in trying to get 16-year-olds to sign with the Braves out of a foreign country. Many of these kids aspire to be the next Acuña or Albies in baseball.

What this all comes back to is reach. We are coming up on two decades since the Braves last had their games airing exclusively on TBS in domestic households everywhere, yet we can still see the lingering effects of that distinct advantage only the Chicago Cubs also every actually had before. For now, it is all about promoting stars from all across the globe to make the Braves the world's ballclub.

Here is to Acuña handing off the torch to someone like Perdomo many, many years from now.