Ronald Acua Jr. wants a World Series title without mixed emotions this time

June 19, 2024

ATLANTA — It’s not difficult to find pictures of Ronald Acuña Jr. smiling two years ago. Google his name and “World Series” and you’ll find snapshots and videos of him raising the trophy over his head, and riding in the championship parade, and generally looking like he had just been part of something special, which he had been. Kinda. Sorta. For a while.

Then again, what can somebody be thinking when they’re one of the best athletes in the world, a celebrated centerpiece of his team, and then your knee blows up but the team, instead of also blowing up, goes on to win a World Series without you?

What are you really thinking when you look at your championship ring or the banner in the stadium?

Is it personal pride or something else entirely?

“You’re happy from a team standpoint, but also in the back of your head, you’re saying, ‘Man, if I was healthy I could be out there to help my team,’” Braves coach Eric Young Sr. said Friday. “Knowing Ronald, and he said it himself at the parade, he’s thinking, ‘I want to do it again — but I want to be playing. Two years ago he missed out on all the fun, on the grind with his teammates, on being on that stage. I know he had mixed emotions. He was hurting inside.”

The Braves open the postseason Saturday night against the Phillies. They are the best team in baseball. Having the best record often doesn’t translate into playoff success: Since division play began in the majors in 1969, only 14 teams with the best record won the World Series.

As evidence of this randomness, the Braves won their title two years ago with 88 wins — only the 12th-best record in the majors. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to make Acuña feel better or worse.

Ronald Acuña Jr. talks to the media during a workout Friday at Truist Park. (Brett Davis / USA Today)

Early two seasons ago, he leaped for a fly ball, came down awkwardly and suffered a torn ACL. His rehab was long and painful, to the extent where he doubted at times he could back to the level he is today. He returned during last season, but he was tentative in the outfield, his timing was off at the plate, his knee still ached.

“He definitely wasn’t the same,” general manager Alex Anthopoulos said. “He was dying to come back. He was anxious. He played through a lot of stuff but he had to DH a lot just because his knee would swell up. We would check with doctors and they would say, ‘He’s fine,’ so we kept playing him. But it was going to take time.”

He started to come around late in the season and was eager to prove himself in the postseason. He hit .333 in four games against the Phillies but didn’t homer in 17 plate appearances, and the Braves, lacking starting pitching and much offense, were a quick exit.

This time feels different.

“He wants this – and I mean badly,” said Ozzie Albies, who’s close with Acuña and has a clubhouse locker adjacent to his. “He wants to be in the big moments. He wants to be a part of something big.”

It would be overstating it to suggest that as Acuña goes this postseason, so go the Braves. History tells us that even with the Braves putting up cartoonish offensive numbers, pitching decides championships. The pivotal factors are more likely Max Fried’s blister, Spencer Strider’s arm and the bullpen. But we’ve seen Acuña take over games and he just finished one of the greatest seasons in history.

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“Thankfully, right now I feel like I’m 100 percent back to being normal,” he said through a translator. “I’d be lying if I said that I thought that I would ever be able to get back to 100 percent. Last year, I felt like I was saying all the time that, ‘Yeah, I’m 100 percent, I’m 100 percent.’ But I feel like that was just something I was telling myself just to, you know, for my mind really.”

As for the mixed emotions of 2021, he said: “Obviously, I would have liked to contribute and help and to be on the field to help them win. But I was happy to be part of the team and be able to celebrate with them.”

He arrived late for a brief off-day press conference and wore a just-made gray T-shirt with his name on it in blue and “40/70” in bold red letters. Nothing like carrying your resume on your chest.

The numbers this season are dizzying. Acuña became only the fifth player in major-league history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases. He also started his own clubs: 40-50, 40-60, 40-70.

He stayed healthy, playing a career-high 159 games. He batted .337 with a 1.012 OPS, 41 homers, 106 RBIs and 73 stolen bases. He ranked first in the majors in runs, hits, total bases, on-base percentage and stolen bases. He absolutely demoralized opposing pitchers with eight leadoff homers and a batting average of .384 with 18 homers when leading off an inning.

The man could’ve slapped a pebble 450 feet with a twig blindfolded if only given a chance.

He’s the first player to collect at least 200 hits, 100 RBIs, 145 runs and 40 homers in a season since guys named DiMaggio, Gehrig and Ruth.

I try not to overdo it with numbers. But one of the things I’ve learned as a sportswriter is when you have a chance to reference DiMaggio, Gehrig and Ruth, you take it.

Acuña’s statistics this season have been dizzying, and he proudly wore a T-shirt Friday commemorating his accomplishments. (Jeff Schultz / The Athletic)

“I feel like I did back in 2019 when I was a player who could just play without restrictions,” Acuña said. That was before the knee, before the COVID-19 season, before the conflicted feelings of the World Series and the doubts about his future.

He is in such a different place than when he began his rehab assignment. He told The Athletic in April of 2022 that he would call home to his mother in Venezuela and tell her he wanted to quit. “I didn’t really mean it,” he said. “It was just something I said. It was just the emotion in that moment. I had to fight with the pain every day. My body wasn’t used to that. I wasn’t used to that. It was the worst thing in my entire life.”

His mother told him, “You’re a warrior.” She reminded him of family and friends back home who supported him. Those words would carry him to the next day.

Acuña is still young (only 25) and he has had some maturity issues along the way. He doesn’t enjoy doing interviews and pulled the ol’, “I’ll be right back,” with a reporter Friday, only to never return and blow off some anticipated one-on-ones. “You’ve seen him in the clubhouse — he’s quiet, almost shy,” Anthopoulos said. “But the guy you see on the field is night and day from the guy you see in the clubhouse.”

Intense. Animated. Almost giddy. On stage, nobody has ever wondered about his ethos or his ability to embrace the moment of big games and postseasons. A grand slam in his third playoff game against the Dodgers in 2018. Going 8-for-18 (.444) with a homer, triple and double in the NLDS against the Cardinals a year later. Going 3-for-4 in Game 1 against the Phillies last season before fizzling with the rest of the team. But he wasn’t fully healthy then.

“He’s probably the one guy that’s coming through his skin right now to get this thing started,” manager Brian Snitker said. “I (told) him, ‘Now you’re going to get that opportunity.’ Because he’s whole and he’s healthy. Even coming off a great year like he did, I know he just can’t wait to get this thing started.”

Because if the Braves can win another World Series and Acuña is at the center of it, there will be no emotional conflict. His joy, like his body, will be whole and healthy.

(Top photo of Ronald Acuña Jr. at the Braves’ 2021 World Series championship celebration at Truist Park: John Adams / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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