Ronald Acuña Jr.’s slump looks even worse with wild stat comparing 2024 and 2023

Ronald Acuña Jr. had one of the best seasons in recent memory for the Atlanta Braves in 2023. He slashed .337/.416/.596 with 41 home runs and 106 RBI. He tacked on 35 doubles and an absurd 73 stolen bases. Hitting for as much power as he did with the speed made his season one of the best and most unique in MLB history.

We're only one month into the 2024 campaign, but Acuña has not looked like the same player. Through 28 games he has slashed .245/.366/.318 with one home run and six RBI. He does have 13 stolen bases in 14 tries, but his bat has lagged behind his legs.

This wild stat shows just how concerning Acuña's start to the 2024 season has been.

The strikeouts have shot up for Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2024

Part of what made Acuña so dominant in 2023 was his ability to put the ball in play. Strikeouts used to be a big part of his game but he fanned just 84 times while drawing 80 walks in his league-leading 735 plate appearances. Acuña struck out at a 25.3% clip from 2018-2022 but toned that down to 11.4% in 2023, which is an absurd improvement.

Unfortunately, that major improvement has not been sustained thus far this season. Granted, it's only been one month, but the strikeouts are a glaring issue right now. As The Athletic's David O'Brien points out, he has four consecutive multi-strikeout games and more multi-strikeout games this season (11) than he had in all of 2023 (10).

Acuña has been drawing his walks which is encouraging, but his whiff rate has gone from the 84th percentile last season to the 24th percentile this season. He has struggled mightily, particularly against fastballs. Acuña is hitting an even .100 against four-seam fastballs with a 34.3 percent whiff rate. Last season he hit .305 against four-seamers with a 17.3 percent whiff rate. All of these statistics are according to Baseball Savant.

Will Acuña turn things around? Absolutely. He's too talented not to. Slumps happen, but this one happens to be more prolonged than Braves fans are accustomed to. However, while he will inevitably be better than he has been, he simply doesn't look close to the same guy from last season.

He might perform at an All-Star level sometime soon, but can he flip the switch to be the MVP he was last season? It's getting harder to believe that with Acuña striking out like this he can go on the MVP tear that he did last season.