By: William Robinson
There is not a player in baseball right now that I would rather watch than Ronald Acuna Jr. You can have your Shohei Ohtani, you can have your Aaron Judge, you can have your Juan Soto and your Bryce Harper. For me I will take Ronald Acuna Jr. Now admittedly I’m a Braves fan and Ronny is my guy but even if I was still a Reds fan, I think I would still appreciate Ronny. I remember when I met him at a Braves team day event. He was just so dang cool. He had his hair in some awesome dreads and was wearing a team hoodie and he was friendly to everyone who was in line for autographs.
Atlanta isn’t the easiest place for some people to play in. The fans are amazing but there is a subsect who are a bit more critical of certain players if you catch my drift. They for some reason seem to be allergic to fun. Still though during that time you wouldn’t know this if you just watched him play. He played day in and day out with the same zest for life that make him amazing and fun to watch. He has taken criticism over his looks and his effort in stride even though both of those things were absolutely ridiculous. Ronald Acuna Jr. has done nothing but be amazing since he was called up to the majors in 2018. His combination of speed and power is unrivaled in the history of Major League Baseball.
In 2018 he won Rookie of the Year. He batted .293 with an OPS of .917. He had 29 HR’s, stole 16 bases and had an OPS+ 143. He did all of that while only playing in 111 games. The next year he played the entire season and batted .280 and nearly was in the 40/40 club that year with 41 HR and 37 stolen bases. 2020 was the covid shortened season and 2021 he got injured with a torn ACL. The next season he came back but wasn’t as effective coming off the injury and something that should be said is that Ozzie Albies missed that season as well. He only hit 15 home runs and stole 29 bases that year, but he was visibly slower than he had been before. Watching him play that season it was obvious that something was off.
It’s really funny but I’m certain that you would see a drastic difference in Ronald’s stats when Ozzie plays and when he doesn’t. You can see it when you watch them play. Ronald loosens up when Ozzie is out there and is dramatically better. Last year Ozzie was hurt and Ronny was coming off of losing a season due to an ACL tear and so he had a horrible year (or at least by his standards). In the few games that Ozzie came back in prior to injuring his wrist I could tell a demonstrable difference in the way that Ronny played. Then when Ozzie got hurt it’s like someone took the wind out of his sails. Still though that was only one season.
This season there was a lot of hype surrounding Acuna. He was finally healthy and so was the rest of this team. So, what did he do? He arguably had one of the greatest seasons that any player has ever had in the history of baseball. Yup Ronald Acuna Jr. is that dude.
This year he became the only player in MLB history to have 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases. Besides that, he also batted an amazing .337, and his OPS is 1.012. His OPS+ is 168. He’s scored 149 runs and had 106 RBI’s. His strike out numbers have been the lowest that he has had in his entire career. His WAR has been a staggering 8.1. He led major league baseball in Offensive WAR, On Base Percentage, Runs, Hits, Total Bases, Stolen Bases, Runs Created, and Times on Base. He has been the best player in baseball, and he deserves the MVP this season.
Ronald Acuna Jr. is my favorite player in baseball. He approaches the game with a fun swagger that inspires me. This isn’t just a job for him. He goes out there every day and has fun. He faces the racism from a subsect of fans who state that he plays the game in a way that isn’t good, and he doesn’t let it get him down. He keeps a smile on his face and a bat in his hands. When he is healthy, he plays every day, and is amazing in the club house. He is a wonderful family man and a good role model for young people. He is the face of baseball for the next generation and as long as the older generation doesn’t tarnish that then baseball will be just fine.