NORTH PORT, Fla. — If Ronald Acuña Jr. has to miss the first month of the season, which seems likely, the Atlanta Braves star is OK with that. He’s returning from his second major knee surgery in three years — he tore the right ACL in July 2021, then tore his left last May 26 — and Acuña has gained wisdom and patience along the way.
“The priority is I feel great, that’s the most important thing,” Acuña said Friday at Braves camp, where the 2023 National League MVP sounded ebullient as he discussed his rehab and the outlook for him and the Braves. “And when they tell me to play that day, I’ll be there.”
Even if that’s not until May?
Acuña, who’s been hitting long homers in batting practice with other early arriving position players, smiled and sighed when asked about a potential May return date.
“It’s hard,” he said. “But I’m working every day. I’m working hard to be ready when they call me.”
The Braves already said he won’t be on the Opening Day roster — they don’t want him overdoing it this spring in the final stages of his rehab — and Braves general manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said Friday that Acuña won’t play in any Grapefruit League games at spring training.
He will probably DH in some scrimmages and minor league games on the back fields at North Port, Anthopoulos said, but once Acuña returns to the active roster there are no plans to have him DH any regular-season games.
“No, he won’t need to,” Anthopoulos said of DHing in the regular season. “When you look back at the numbers in ’22 (coming back from the first surgery), he didn’t DH that much. So, he’s already so much farther ahead of where he was at the same stage. He’s had that much more time to recover. So there’s been no discussion of it. You know, things can change, of course, but no discussion. We don’t anticipate needing to do that at all.
“And we expect when he’s back that he’s playing most likely all his games in the outfield.”
When Ronald Acuña Jr. returns, expect him to be in the outfield and not at DH. (Brett Davis / Getty Images)
As for an expected return date for Acuña, Anthopolous said, “I think once we get to the end of camp, we’ll have a better idea on a time frame. But the big thing for us is just making sure when he’s back he’s full-go and he’s back to the elite player that he’s always been.”
Acuña, who turned 27 in December, estimated he’s running at 90-95 percent capacity, and said that the repaired left knee feels much more stable at this juncture of rehab than the right knee felt when he returned in April 2022. He dealt with lingering soreness and instability in the knee that diminished his confidence and power that season.
After posting a .394 OBP and then-career bests of .596 slugging and .990 OPS in 82 games before his season-ending injury in 2021, Acuña slipped to career worsts of .351 OBP, .413 slugging and .764 OPS in 119 games in 2022 in his first season after surgery.
But a healthy Acuña was the best player in baseball in 2022, when he hit .337 with 41 homers, led the majors in hits (217), stolen bases (73), OBP (.416) and total bases (383), and led the NL in plate appearances (735), OPS (1.012) and OPS+ (171) while playing 159 games and having no issues with the knee.
This time, Acuña and the Braves hope that taking 2-3 more months to rehab, instead of the nine he had before returning from the first ACL tear, will help him avoid recurring soreness and a subpar season by his standards like he endured in 2022.
“I think his floor is what he did last time (in 2022), and I feel that he’ll be better than that,” Anthopoulos said, “just because of the way the rehab’s gone. The fact that he’s going through this a second time, he has much more knowledge and familiarity, and just experience of having gone through it. The fact that we’re going to give him that much more time, we think, should only be good for him and his performance.
“I don’t want to make any predictions in terms of numbers and so on, but I think his floor is what he did last time, with a ceiling clearly well beyond that.”
Acuña, said he will be more careful running the bases when he returns. The second ACL tear occurred when he planted his foot to retreat to second base on an aborted plan to steal third on a catcher’s throw back to the pitcher. He also missed time last spring training after tweaking the knee on a rundown in a meaningless exhibition game.
Ronald Acuna Jr. says he learned English from his teammates and he jokes that his translator Franco doesn’t have a job anymore.
His goal this season to stay healthy. #ForTheA #Braves pic.twitter.com/3YWiyCk2G3— Alison Mastrangelo (@AlisonWSB) February 14, 2025
“I need to take it easy, man,” said Acuña, who acknowledged that might be easier said than done, just like pacing himself this spring and not trying to do too much in workouts could be difficult. “Yes. I need to take it easy, man. If I stay healthy. I can play whatever I want.”
Acuña talked his way back into the lineup in 2022 just nine months after surgery, a little sooner than the team planned. And the careful schedule they had laid out, including no day games after night games or games after travel days, also quickly was abandoned. But this time, Acuña said he will leave it entirely to the doctors to determine when he’s ready. He and the Braves agree it’s best to take a more conservative approach this time.
“My goal for this year, I’m gonna stay healthy and help my team,” Acuña said. “That’s it. I want to stay healthy. When I stay healthy, I can do everything.”
He’s also doing interviews in English this year for the first time in his career. Acuña handled his first of the spring Friday with aplomb, despite what he said were sweaty palms from nervousness in front of reporters and several TV cameras. He was laughing when he said it, but displayed damp palms to prove he wasn’t kidding.
If he was nervous, it didn’t show in his demeanor or answers, including one about the Braves’ revamped outfield. Free-agent newcomer Jurickson Profar (28 homers, .380 OBP, .839 OPS in 2024 with San Diego) takes over in left field to give the Braves a standout trio when Acuña returns, those two flanking center fielder Michael Harris II. Jarred Kelenic is the likely right fielder until Acuña is back.
“Best outfield in baseball, for me,” Acuña, whose locker is adjacent to the veteran Profar’s. “We can play defense and offense, too. For me, best outfield in baseball.”
Told what Acuña said about the outfield, Profar smiled and said, “Yes, well, we still have to go there and do it, you know? But we have that potential.”
💨💨💨@ronaldacunajr24 | #BravesST pic.twitter.com/4I2p5QFkHP
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) February 13, 2025
Profar said he chose the Braves in part because of team chemistry he’d seen from playing against them, and because of their talent, led by Acuña.
“He’s a great baseball player,” Profar said. “I always admire him from afar, when I play against him. He’s a really, really good baseball player.”
Profar is an 11-year veteran who played alongside the likes of Adrian Beltré in Texas, Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien and once-again teammate Matt Olson in Oakland, and Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. in San Diego.
So, where does he rank Acuña, after watching him from afar and spending much of the past week with him?
“I think Acuña and Tatis, they are at a different level,” Profar said. “I think maybe (Shohei) Ohtani is up there with them. They’re in the league of their own; if they’re healthy, the sky’s the limit for him. Same as Tatis, too.”
Profar didn’t mention Soto, who signed a 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets in December, a deal that has a $51 million average annual value that’s exactly three times Acuna’s $17 million peak salary in his contract, which runs through 2026 and also has two club options at $17 million for 2027-2028.
Acuńa was asked about seeing Soto and others get massive contracts and various rankings that before last season had Acuña as baseball’s top overall player, or at least top three, and now have him nowhere near that high after his second injury-shortened season for knee surgery in four years.
“That’s fine, because last year I can’t play,” Acuña said. “But I need to stay healthy this year, and I’m top 10 next year.”
His real motivation, he said, was elsewhere.
“It was motivation when you see your teammates play and you can’t,” Acuña said. “But that’s a different year. It’s 2025. Here we go.”
(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
