Atlanta Braves fans were treated to one of the best seasons in baseball history thanks to the work of one Ronald Acuna Jr. In route to unanimously winning the NL MVP award, Ronald slashed .337/.416/.596 and became the first player ever in baseball history to record a 40/70 season. That isn't just good, that is absolutely absurd.
Assuming that he stays healthy, Ronnie is probably going to be a top MVP contender yet again and you will struggle to find anyone that disagrees. However, when the data-centric projection systems starting predicting him to have another one of the best season's in franchise history, it is a reminder of just how talented Acuna Jr. truly is.
Earlier today, Fangraphs' Dan Szymborski released his ZiPS projections for the Braves going into 2024. The whole piece is more than worth a read, but what ZiPS predicted for RAJ next season should have the entire league on notice.
Ronald Acuna Jr. is projected to have another all-time great Braves season in 2024
The 2024 Braves roster is obviously loaded which is what makes Ronald's projections stand out even more. Matt Olson is projected to accumulate 3.8 fWAR next year. Austin Riley is predicted to hit 4.6 coming off his quietly awesome 2023 season and Michael Harris is slated to get 4.0. All of those are very strong seasons.
As for Ronald, ZiPS has him hitting 7.1 fWAR in 2024. Yes, he is projected to have a fWAR that is equal to Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson combined (or at least close to it). ZiPS has Ronnie slashing .304/.403/.590 with 43 homers and 51 steals assuming he gets to 688 plate appearances. Just insane.
For context, there have been 32 individual seasons total since 1900 by Braves players that have met or exceeded 7.1 fWAR and the bulk of them come from times when getting precise defensive data is sketchy at best. Hank Aaron predictably accounts for 10 of those seasons, Eddie Mathews had eight of them, and both Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones each appear multiple times as well. Dale Murphy only pulled it off once in 1987.
Ronnie himself put together the 10th highest Braves mark by fWAR at 8.3 last season where he rewrote baseball's history books. That a projection system, which isn't looking for the highest percentile outcomes, is predicting 7.1 WAR out of him is just nutty. However, if Ronald taught us anything last season, that may only be scratching the surface of what he is capable of doing.