Unsurprisingly, Saturday night saw Eric Hartman continue to do Eric Hartman things. The Braves' fast-rising outfield prospect connected for his 17th home run of the season, and he has hit safely in every game this month aside from one. In short, Hartman can no longer be considered a fluke. In fact, it is probably time to start thinking of his breakout season in comparison to another hotshot Braves prospect, Ronald Acuña Jr.
Before anyone gets too excited, Hartman and Acuña Jr. certainly had their differences at this point in their careers in the minors. Hartman is a 20th-round pick from Canada who is a heavy pull hitter that also happens to have plus speed, and whose full-season debut didn't inspire much fanfare. Acuña Jr. was signed as a teenager out of Venezuela as an international free agent who started showing power to all fields almost immediately and who had scouts drooling from the moment he hit low-A.
No, we are not saying that Hartman is a lock to become a star and win MVP. It is just too early for that and too much can go wrong between now and any MLB debut. However, it is hard to see some of the similarities between the two and not get excited about what that could mean for Hartman's future.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, Eric Hartman has homered! pic.twitter.com/BA6UAOjW4I
— Rome Emperors (@GoEmperors) June 14, 2026
Somehow, Eric Hartman is on pace to match or exceed Ronald Acuña Jr.'s transcendent 2017
It is actually kind of freaky. Both Hartman and Acuña Jr. didn't get much respect after their low-A debuts, but for very different reasons. Hartman just didn't show much in his first full season when it came to power, and his hit tool was questionable at best, although he did steal 48 bags, which attracted some eyeballs at least. Acuña Jr. was immediately performing once he got to (at the time) low-A Rome, but he suffered a major thumb injury and missed most of three months.
However, it is Hartman and Acuña Jr.'s second year in full-season ball that is where things get kind of exciting. Both players started the season in high-A, and the numbers are kind of freaky. In 139 games, Acuña Jr. posted a .325/.374/.522 line across three levels of the minors.
In comparison, Hartman's current line is .311/.377/.601, and his 17 home runs so far through just 57 games are getting pretty close to matching Acuña Jr.'s 21 homers for the entire 2017 season. Oh, and his 26 steals have him on pace to best Acuña Jr.'s 44 swipes that year. Yes, that means we are saying that Hartman is on pace in multiple ways (approach, OBP, total homers, total steals, etc) to beat one of the better seasons from any Braves prospect that we have seen in the team's history.
Where Acuña Jr. does have Hartman beat (at least for now) is that he actually did his best work after being promoted twice in 2017. The Braves' high-A affiliate was in Florida at the time, and while his numbers were fine there, Acuña Jr. didn't really get going until he was at Double-A Mississippi and Triple-A. At this point, the arguments to keep Hartman at high-A are not particularly good. Atlanta should absolutely move Hartman up to Double-A and soon. If what happened with Acuña Jr. is any indication, the best is yet to come out of Hartman, which should the rest of the league very afraid.
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