After one month into the Atlanta Braves 2024 season, fans are asking "What happened to Ronald Acuña Jr.'s power?" Acuna is still getting on base. His .368 on-base percentage and his 13.2% walk rate are A-OKAY. He's getting on base, stealing bases (3rd in MLB), and scoring runs (T-1st in MLB). The glaring issue is his lack of power.
Disclaimer: All stats are current as of 05/03/2024
Is this the worst power outage of Ronald Acuña Jr.'s career?
Through the first 29 games, Acuña is slugging just .322. There aren't many sample sizes in Acuña's history that dip as low as what we have seen this season. He has just six extra-base hits (five doubles and one homer) in 115 at-bats.
In July of 2022, Acuña slugged .281. But back then, he was recovering from his ACL surgery and played in limited action. His power was down for the season with a .413 SLG in 119 games. In 2021, before his torn ACL, he slugged .596. He followed 2022's dip with an MVP 2023 season in which he slugged .595 again.
He slugged .388 in his first full month in the big leagues back in May of 2018.
In last season's MVP campaign, he never had a month with a slugging percentage below .559.
We've probably all heard the analysis by now that he isn't hitting fastballs well, he's striking out a ton compared to last year. Today, we want to take a look at some of the silver linings to Acuña's... I hesitate to call it a slow start. Acuña is leading the league in runs scored, is third in SBs, and is tied for 30th in OBP. So not a slow start, just a powerless start.
On the next page, we'll take a look at why we think Acuña is due to bust out the power stick.