No, Atlanta Braves fans, you don’t want to see Ronald Acuna in 2017

While multiple other top prospects are getting the call this September, Atlanta Braves fans are increasingly getting impatient to see Ronald Acuna.

Atlanta Braves fans have suffered through a rough end to what was a promising season at the halfway point. As that rough finish to the year has culminated, the eyes have turned much more to the future of the roster, and specifically to the name that has been rocketing up prospect lists and receiving a ton of press all season, Ronald Acuna. Acuna is receiving notice all over the place, recently named the USA Today and MLB Pipeline minor league player of the year. Baseball America will announce their award Friday, but Acuna is a finalist for their award as well. To give a sneak peak into an upcoming column, Acuna is in the running for the player of the year award in the upcoming minor league awards here on Call to the Pen.

Ronald Acuna’s 2017 ascension

The video above is from the first “national” writer who began to swoon over Acuna, David Lee of Baseball Prospectus, taken in April of 2016. While those who were very involved on the Braves minor league system had knowledge of Acuma before his time in Rome, that report from Lee was what got him on the map for many nationally, as Lee raved about Acuna on multiple platforms. He would go on to write a report on Acuna in September.

After the season, most were not big on Acuna, but he absolutely dominated the Australian winter league, and the reports coming back from that were such that it was hard to ignore. By the time top 100 lists came out, many struggled with exactly where to place Acuna, MLB Pipeline left him off of their top 100, Baseball America had him #67, and Baseball Prospectus had him #31, which shows the volatility from the national views on Acuna. He was ranked #44 in the Call to the Pen top 125, put together by yours truly really before any of the Australian winter league stuff came into play, published in early January of 2017.

Matt Powers of Talking Chop put together a tremendous article on what changes Ronald Acuna made this season to rocket up prospect lists, and I’ll echo much of his observations on Acuna in my own viewing and the calling I’ve done on Acuna in the last year. My own report on Acuna before the season for Tomahawk Take has drawn some negative attention this season from fans, but coming into the year, it was viewed by a few scouts that I ran it by as a hair on the “rosy” side.

However, the very last line in Acuna’s “arm” review has taken hold as he really developed his footwork in the outfield to utilize his arm to a much better level in the outfield and position himself very well in center field. Offensively, he’s worked with his swing, starting in fall instructs last season, to utilize that natural power by hitting more line drives and put the ball in the air. I mentioned at the end of the report that if he could access that power in game, he could leap to a legit top 10 prospect in the game. He’s done that, and then some!

Acuna opened the season with Florida in the high-A Florida State League, and when he was promoted to AA Mississippi, it surprised some, as his numbers weren’t exactly dominating the FSL. However, he exploded into the upper levels, and he had more than earned his promotion to AAA Gwinnett. He did all of this at 19 years old.

His stats at each level in 2017:
High-A Florida Fire Frogs: 28 games, 126 plate appearances, 115 at bats, .287/.336/.478, 3 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR, 14 SB, 6.2% BB, 31.7% K
AA Mississippi Braves: 57 G, 243 PA, 221 AB, .326/.374/.520, 14 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 19 SB, 7.4% BB, 23% K
AAA Gwinnett Braves: 54 G, 243 PA, 221 AB, .344/.393/.548, 14 2B, 2 3B, 9 HR, 11 SB, 7% BB, 19.8% K
Overall: 139 G, 612 PA, 557 AB, 88 R, 181 H, 31 2B, 8 3B, 21 HR, 82 RBI, 44 SB, 7% BB, 23.5% K

Now let’s look at those reasons to rest…

Why to let him rest

Acuna suffered an injury to his thumb/wrist in early May of 2016. It kept him out of play until late August, costing him nearly all of three months in a five-month season. To make up for the lost time in 2016, Acuna went to fall instructs to get time at the plate and work on his swing. He then went to the Australian Baseball League, almost immediately from fall instructs.

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Acuna was the hit of major league spring training, spending almost the entirety of spring training with the major league club, especially with the loss of players to the World Baseball Classic for a time, but he showed while he was in the lineup that he deserved to remain there.

On the season, Acuna has led all minor league players in games played with 139, plate appearances with 612, at bats with 557, and hits with 181, indicating just how much he’s played this season, after essentially playing straight through starting when he returned to rehab in late August of 2016.

While Atlanta Braves fans may be getting a bit jumpy, especially after division rival Washington called up their top outfield prospect, Victor Robles, Acuna certainly needs the rest and can use the time to recover some before heading to the Arizona Fall League.

Next: Arizona Fall League Roster Breakdown

As fans have been clamoring for Acuna, Atlanta Braves beat writers Mark Bowman (above tweet) and David O’Brien have been outlining that the team has no interest in bringing up Acuna for a number of different reasons.

As a fan, it is difficult to struggle through the tough times in a season, and the second half has been tough for the Braves, but rather than exposing a likely-tired Acuna to the possibility of injury by over-exerting himself while he’s running on fumes (see what happened to Robert Whalen last season for how well that goes at the big league level). Instead, let Acuna show himself in the AFL and impact the 2018 team!