Atlanta Braves: Previewing the possible 30/30 candidates for 2023

The 30 home run and 30 stolen base season is a rare feat in Major League Baseball. The Atlanta Braves had one of only 15 players in the last 23 years (Baseball Almanac) to record a 30/30 season in Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2019. Some believe the Braves may add to this number in the 2023 season. There are three possible candidates based on their combinations of power and speed that they bring to the park each day with a chance to join the illustrious group of players that have hit 30 and stolen 30.

Ronald Acuña Jr. could be a 30-30 player for the Atlanta Braves in 2023

Beginning with the obvious, Acuña has already accomplished this feat, so what’s to say that he can’t do it again? In 2019, which also happened to be his last full-length uninjured/unhindered season, he racked up 40 homers and 37 steals according to FanGraphs. Maybe we should be talking about a 40/40 season out of him instead! He most certainly could accomplish that as well. His 40 homers were top 10 in all of baseball that year, and he was third in MLB in stolen bases as well. It was widely publicized last season that he was bothered by his surgically repaired knee. Even though his power was down, he still managed to swipe 29 bags.

When you take a deeper dive into that 2019 season, the advanced numbers stand out as well. His isolated power (ISO), a metric using slugging percentage and batting average among other things, was at .238. An isolated power of .250 is to be considered elite, so if he didn’t reach that mark and still hit 40 home runs, it is fair to say that the power is there.

Base running data was through the charts that year as well. Acuña’s base running runs created (BSR), which measures steals, caught stealing and any other running play, was 8.1. This was good for fourth in MLB that season.