Ronald Acuña Jr. was scratched from today’s lineup because of left wrist irritation, the team announced via Twitter. Obviously, it’s not an ideal situation for the Braves, but there’s no apparent reason to read anything more into this than what’s on the surface. With their playoff position locked, the Braves don’t gain much from playing Acuña today, especially if he’s anything less than 100%. There’s no reason to expect Acuña won’t be back in the lineup for their 3-game wild card playoff.
Acuna wanted to be in the lineup today, so the injury clearly isn’t all that limiting, but the Braves wanted to be cautious with their superstar, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter). It is the same wrist that caused him some trouble in August. That said, the 22-year-old still managed to play in 46 games this season and post 2.0 rWAR with a triple slash of .250/.406/.581.
While Acuña’s wrist soreness will surely make some Braves fans a little nervous, there’s cause for optimism coming out of Atlanta as well. Ace Max Fried threw a bullpen session today, and as expected, he’d been given the green light for the playoffs, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). Perhaps even more important than Acuña, Atlanta really needs a healthy Fried in order to make a deep run this postseason. He was their best starter by a wide margin this season, emerging from a muddled and hectic rotation to establish himself as an ace and Cy Young candidate.
In 11 starts this season, Fried went 7-0 with a sterling 2.25 ERA/3.10 FIP across 56 innings. His contributions amount to 2.9 rWAR, the fourth-highest mark among pitchers in the majors. The only concern for Fried is that he’s thrown just 6 innings across two starts since going on the injured list early in September. The Braves have held the division lead or some time now, so they’ve been able to be patient with their ace. Still, he’ll be watched closely as he prepares to start the opener of the postseason. As the #2 seed, the Braves will be playing in Atlanta, though their opponent has yet to be decided. Beyond Fried, none of the Braves potential starters (Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson) have more than a year of service time under their belts.
Yikes!
This guy takes more days off than the Maytag repairman
It wasn’t Acuna’s preference to be sidelined for the game. He wanted to play.
www-talkingchop-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.tal…
I don’t think it matters. They have Panda now. Who needs Acuna?
Panda sucks. Why Atlanta signed him is beyond me.
I mean who wouldn’t want a panda?
@Jaa1968
A player that hit in the clutch and did the business when it mattered most is not a baseball player that “sucks”. You’re entitled though to your flawed and erroneous opinion.
Panda Express?
All that swing and missing does irritate the wrists.
Swing and a miss is what you just did in your post.
Thank God you have something to cherry pick about Acuna. What would you gripe about otherwise? His dreads?
Forgive me!
No.
Why is the Urena update in the Acuna article?
To cheer all the braves fans up?
Urena or acuna? This is the Acuna post but u said Urena
Y’all updated the wrong article. Please do not confuse my boy Ronnie with an awful pitcher.
Fax
Ureña?
Not a cool error. Mixing up Acuña and Ureña.
Not cool.
Damn near gave me a heart attack.
Wonder if their little feud had anything to do with it.
Hi TC,
Can you transfer this sentence to this website not Acuna? mlbtraderumors.com/2020/09/starling-marte-jose-ure…
Ureña has a non-displaced ulna fracture in his right forearm, per Jose Frisaro of MLB.com. Ureña will miss the postseason.
Also, it’s Joe Frisaro, not Jose
It’s downright amazing what the Atlanta Braves have managed to do this season with all that has been thrown at them. Lesser teams would have faltered under all of these injuries and such. To think they are the #2 seed with what basically amounted to only one reliable starter for almost the entire season (after the Ace Mike Soroka was lost and until Ian Anderson made his debut). Max Fried has been outstanding and better win the Cy Young but after that wow it was pretty rough. Acuna battled injuries, Abies was decimated by them and yet still they kept chugging along. If Fried can’t go though it’s all but over.
The pitching injuries and problems are all that much harder to swallow when you consider the monster that is the Braves offense this season. I don’t think there is a better 1-4 in all of baseball than what the Braves have… 1) R. Acuna, 2) O. Albies, 3) F. Freeman, 4) M. Ozuna… Hell add in d’Arnaud, Swanson and Adam Duvall and it might be at the top if not the top 1-7 in baseball. If the other pitchers can give even satisfactory performances the Braves offense can keep them in a lot of games. By the way even with the injury to his wrist Acuna has still mashed. Were this a normal 162 game season he’s on pace to destroy even last seasons power numbers with his home runs extrapolated out to around 54 were it a normal season.
Next Freddie Freeman somehow is always overlooked, someone as talented and consistent as he is shouldn’t be able to be underrated but that is just what he is. If he doesn’t when the MVP this year something is wrong. Tatis Jr. has faded while Freeman has gotten better as the season went on.
PS. It’s pretty exciting to think that come next year the Braves could very well have the second coming of the big 3 in Atlanta (Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz) with 1) M. Soroka, 2) M. Fried and 3) I. Anderson they could be dangerous for many years to come.