Why Ronald Acuña Jr. could be costing the Braves their best chances in free agency

Last season may have been the anomaly for the Atlanta Braves. Then again, 2021 might actually be the real anomaly, but that is neither here nor there. What I am getting at is this contending roster was ravaged by injuries all across the diamond. The Braves got two starts out of Spencer Strider, missed Austin Riley down the stretch and saw Ronald Acuña Jr. tear his ACL over Memorial Day Weekend.

In Ken Rosenthal's latest for The Athletic, he went into why the Braves have not been as big of spenders in free agency as they would have liked. Every more the front office has made has been to create financial capital for general manager Alex Anthopoulos to work with. He let key veterans like Travis d'Arnaud, Max Fried and Charlie Morton walk. All the while, nobody is walking through the door.

While Atlanta still needs to add a starting pitcher or two, as well as a reliever, above all else, the idea of them upgrading at shortstop and in the outfield may not come to fruition. This is because Rosenthal hints that Acuña's return to the Braves lineup could be sooner than expected, forcing whoever Atlanta signs into a bench role. The idea is he may be back with the team as an every day player in early May.

Atlanta getting back Acuña and Strider in the first third of the season will be massive for the Braves.

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Ronald Acuña Jr.'s 2025 return is impacting Atlanta Braves in free agency

To be quite honest, this is probably a good thing. When healthy, Acuña is the franchise's best player. Rather than pursuing an outfielder in free agency, waiting until he gets back is the right call. Besides, Anthopoulos has shown a proclivity and a willingness to trade for a player at the deadline. He would much rather do that than overpay for somebody else's players in MLB free agency. This is so obvious.

What I keep going back to is Atlanta's two moves of note in free agency this year will be to address the starting rotation and the bullpen. He needs to add at least one starter to offset losing Fried to the New York Yankees and Morton to the Baltimore Orioles. As far as the relief pitcher is concerned, they need to find a guy who can replace Joe Jimenez who will be lost for the season due to his bad injury.

Overall, the return of Strider and Acuña seems closer than it is too far. Strider projects to be back sooner than Acuña, as he did not have to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair his injured UCL. He may be ready to rock by mid-April to early May. As for Acuña, the Braves are going to be cautious with this. He should be back after Strider, but it might be closer to when he hurt his knee only a year ago.

Right now, all of your attention on potential Braves moves should be regarding their pitching staff.