Worrisome Ronald Acuña Jr. comparison matches up right down to the injury history

Ronald Acuña Jr. is beginning to turn into one of the biggest "what if?" stories of the 21st century of baseball.

What if Acuña didn't get hurt in 2021? What if Acuña didn't lose half a season to COVID in 2020? What if Acuña didn't injure his knee in 2024? Will we ever see the true potential in one of the game's brightest stars?

This story has some striking parallels to another electric player, one of the best players of the 1980's: Eric Davis.

Ronald Acuña Jr. and Eric Davis have a lot in common

After suffering a torn ACL, his second in four seasons, Ronald Acuña Jr. has now finished his seventh MLB season. Eric Davis finished his seventh MLB season in 1990 before undergoing knee surgery after that year.

The similarities between these two players' first seven seasons is scary.

Each and every statistical category is similar. The counting stats, home runs, hits, RBIs and stolen bases are nearly identical. They would also put up nearly identical slash lines across almost the same number of games played.

Both players looked to be off to legendary, generational starts to their careers. But they both underwent knee surgery during or after their seventh season in the big leagues.

Unfortunately for Davis, he was never quite the same after his seventh season. He would go on to average just 86 games and 275 at bats per season after his 1990 knee surgery. Over his last 10 seasons, Davis would slash .266/.354/.445 with 116 home runs and 116 stolen bases.

This is the same player who stole 80 bases in 1986 and hit 37 home runs a year later in 1987. It truly is one of the biggest "what if?" stories that baseball has to offer.

Acuña Jr. has paced Davis for the first seven years of his career. Hopefully for Acuña, the Braves and the entire baseball world, the Atlanta outfielder is able to recover better from his knee surgery than Davis did.

It's one thing to tear the ACL one time, but to tear the ACL in both knees on separate occasions is a tough thing to come back from Acuña has climbed the mountain of this injury once. The baseball world will come together with well wishes that the MVP can do it again.