In an Atlanta Braves season where little has gone well, one thing that has gone very well is Ronald Acuña Jr's return from his ACL injury. Although the 2023 MVP has only appeared in nine games, he's not only been the most productive player on the team, he's also been one of the best players in MLB since his return.
With the 2025 MLB All-Star Game being hosted in Acuña's own ballpark for the first time, it's only right that the superstar get a chance to represent the National League, even despite missing the first two months.
Ronald Acuña Jr. now has 3 home runs since his return
— MLB (@MLB) May 31, 2025
La Bestia is BACK 😤 pic.twitter.com/QuWbfVGKYk
Why Ronald Acuña Jr. deserves to go to the All-Star Game
With the Braves hosting this year's All Star Game, it would be easy to just say that Acuña Jr., being the face of the hosting team, deserves the All-Star nod just to appease the home crowd. After all, If the All-Star Game was in the next week, it would be hard to argue that a player with a fifth of the plate appearances of qualified hitters should get the selection over players who have played the full season.
With just 38 plate appearances across nine games, Acuña Jr. is far behind other NL outfielders, some of whom have seven times more trips to the plate. However, the Braves will have 36 games until the break.
If Acuña Jr. can average roughly 4.2 plate appearances per game, the Braves right fielder will have come to bat roughly 200 times, 67% to be a qualified batter.
At this point, the gap in games will appear to be much lesser than it does right now, and if Acuña continues to play the way he has since coming off the IL, he should be well deserving of an All-Star spot.
The 27-year-old has already accumulated 0.6 fWAR in just nine games, 28th among NL outfielders out of 82 outfielders with at least 30 PAs. He's slashed .324/.395/.647 with three bombs, good for a 186 wRC+. If he continues this up until the break, he'd be worth roughly 3.0 WAR. Last season, there were only three outfielder in the NL with 3 WAR at the break, Mookie Betts, Christian Yelich and Brenton Doyle.
Of course, extrapolating a hot start to the season might be a tall ask, but there were only nine NL outfielders to reach 2.0 WAR at the break, which at this point, doesn't seem like a mark that far out of reach for Acuña Jr.
Acuña Jr. representing the A in this year's All-Star Game would be a special moment, regardless of his stats this year, but it's clear that Ronnie's going to do his best to prove he belongs. So far, he's well on his way to deserving that nod.