There is no shortage of ways to describe how awesome Ronald Acuna Jr. has been for the Atlanta Braves this season. He is the current frontrunner for the National League MVP award, put up the first 40/70 in MLB history, and leads the league in a host of offensive categories. This is a season for the ages, no question about it.
However, he still had a little bit of unfinished business from last night's game as he only tied the modern era franchise record for steals in a season at 72 which was originally set by Otis Nixon back in 1991. After striking out in his first plate appearance of Saturday's game, he walked in his next at-bat and no one was surprised that he was running on the very next pitch. It did not matter and history was made.
Ronald Acuña Jr. has set a new modern era franchise stolen base record!@ronaldacunajr24 | #ForTheA pic.twitter.com/JDN0jfUWeG
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) October 1, 2023
Ronald Acuna Jr. breaks Braves modern franchise record for steals in a season
At this point, it isn't surprising at all to see Ronald break some record or doing something rarely seen on any given night. Arguably the most remarkable part of all of it (other than him cutting his strikeout rate in half this season) is that he has just been this guy all season long with no dips. Looking at his steal totals from each month, he has stolen double digit bases each and every month of the season. That just doesn't happen and no, the slightly bigger bases don't explain that away.
When the dust settles at the end of this season, Braves fans will look back at this season from Ronnie and remember it for one of the single greatest seasons ever by an Atlanta Brave. The crazy thing is that he makes it look easy and one wonders how he will top it next season, because everyone knows he is going to try.