Atlanta Braves OF Ronald Acuña Jr. undergoes ACL surgery
The Atlanta Braves’ young phenom is expected to be out of commission until some point early in the 2022 season.
Atlanta Braves All-Star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair his torn ACL, as reported by the official Twitter page of the Braves:
OF Ronald Acuña Jr. underwent surgery yesterday to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. Dr. Neal S. ElAttrache performed the procedure in Los Angeles, California.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 22, 2021
Acuña suffered the injury in a game against the Miami Marlins while chasing a ball hit by Jazz Chisholm. After an attempt to walk on it, he eventually had to be carted off the field.
The 23-year-old Acuña was in the midst of the best season of his young career, having already amassed 4.3 fWAR.
In 2019, he had a 5.6 fWAR season, but that was over the course of 156 games: this year he was on pace for around 8 fWAR with the possibility of a 50 homer/35 steal campaign.
In the process, his strikeout rate was a remarkable 6% lower than last year and the rest of his stats were almost across-the-board better.
On top of everything else, it’s rare to achieve a 100+ RBI season, but doing that from the leadoff spot in the batting order is almost unheard of… yet Ronnie was on that kind of pace.
Long Recovery for the Atlanta Braves star
According to the Mayo Clinic website, it generally takes between eight-twelve months to recover from ACL surgery. No timetable has been announced for Acuña.
Dr. ElAttrache is the head physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers and LA Rams. He also performed ACL surgery for seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady back in 2008, and the two continue to have a good relationship to this day.
Safe to say Ronnie is in good hands.
On behalf of everyone at Tomahawk Take, we wish him well in his recovery and look forward to seeing him back on the field soon.
Next. On the market, but under the Radar?. dark
Go Braves.