Ronald Acuña Jr.’s terrible strikeout has Braves fans truly concerned

You wouldn't know it as their 19-9 record is the best in baseball entering play on Wednesday, but the Atlanta Braves have gotten just about nothing from the reigning NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr.

Acuña entered Wednesday's game against the Seattle Mariners slashing .245/.366/.318 with one home run and six RBI in 28 games played. Yes, he does have 13 stolen bases, but his power has been non-existent and his strikeout rate has taken a massive leap in the wrong direction following last season's MVP campaign.

As if a .685 OPS from Acuña one month into the season wasn't bad enough, his strikeout to begin Wednesday's game gives Braves fans real reason to panic.

Braves fans have reason to panic following Ronald Acuña Jr.'s latest strikeout

Acuña led off Wednesday's game against Emerson Hancock of the Mariners and was completely overmatched. The most embarrassing thing is he probably hits all four pitches he saw 400+ feet last season.

Acuña saw three straight fastballs right down the middle and up and he fouled all three of them off. It's not even as if 93 mph is considered overpowering anymore. He then struck out looking on a change-up that was right down the middle and belt high. Perhaps the speed change caught him off balance, but Acuña not even offering at that pitch is... a problem.

Pitchers are noticing a very troublesome trend with Acuña. He cannot hit fastballs right now, for whatever reason.

Acuña entered play on Wednesday hitting .100 with a .173 xBA against four-seam fastballs. He has a 34.3% whiff rate against fastballs. Last season he hit .305 against four-seamers and only whiffed at 17.3% of them according to Baseball Savant.

Now, Acuña did not whiff at these fastballs which is encouraging, I guess, but he was unable to put any of the three of them into the field of play, which is frightening because they were middle-middle and belt-high. They were on a tee for him to absolutely crush them. He could be excused if these were Mason Miller fastballs, but they're not.

Eventually, Acuña is going to get going to an extent. He's too good of a player not to. However, this brutal start to his season is absolutely a concern. He has one home run in one month of action. He can't seem to hit fastballs. Hopefully, for Atlanta's sake, he can find it sooner than later.