Even though Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. isn't set to become a free agent anytime soon, as the Braves have two club options on the right fielder for the 2027 and the 2028 season, there have been calls for the team to extend him anyway for years.
Unfortunately, after two of the Braves biggest rivals made blockbuster signings at mind-blowingly high annual values, it looks like any hope that Atlanta could make Acuña a Brave for life has passed.
Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker's massive contracts might put Ronald Acuña Jr. extension dreams to bed
Before the ink was dry on his eight year, $100 million extension Ronald Acuña Jr. signed in 2019, fans and experts alike were astonished by how team friendly the deal was. Although Acuña had less than a year of service time, he already looked like a star in the making, and contracts signed by players like Fernando Tatis Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and of course, Juan Soto have only made the deal look even better for the Braves.
Still, everyone knew that this deal wouldn't be Acuña's last big contract, as the superstar will only be 30 when his deal ends in 2028. Because of how team friendly his deal is through the remainder of his contract, as Acuña Jr. will earn just $17 million a season for the next three seasons, Braves fans have believed the only chance they'd have to keep him in a Braves uniform for life.
Unfortunately, Kyle Tucker's deal with the Dodgers and Bo Bichette's deal with the Mets might have ended any hope that the team could extend Acuña.
While Juan Soto's massive deal with the Mets was record-breaking, his age played as much of a role in the overall value of the contract at $765 million as his superstar status. After all, the Mets weren't just signing a player who was the fourth-best hitter in baseball since his debut, they were also signing someone who could play for the next 15 seasons while playing at a prime level for most of that contract.
However, both Kyle Tucker and Bo Bichette went a different direction. Instead of looking for the longest contract with the most guaranteed money, the sluggers decided to get the deals with the most money per season, and it worked out incredibly well.
When the offseason began, MLB Trade Rumors. predicted Kyle Tucker would land an 11-year deal worth $400 million. Although the deal Tucker ultimately settled for guarantees him 60 percent of what was predicted, his annual earnings are nearly twice as high, coming in at $60 million per season instead of $36.36 million. To make this risk worthwhile, Tucker would only need to make roughly $23 million per season on his next deal after becoming a free agent again after his age-32 season.
Likewise Bo Bichette also settled for a deal $82 million less than expected, but at an annual value of $16 million more. Bichette's deal also includes opt-outs with opt-out bonuses, meaning Bichette can opt out after just one season and sign a similar deal to the one he turned down from the Phillies while making an extra $20 million.
Acuña will be older than both Bichette and Tucker when he hits free agency, but his pedigree is already stronger than both Tucker and Bichette. Now, in addition to the long-term contracts signed by his peers, Acuña and his agent will be able to point to these deals by Bichette and Tucker as reasons to why he deserves an annual salary triple what he's making with the Braves.
If the Braves even want their face of the franchise to even consider an extension, they'd likely need to offer him an annual value north of what Manny Machado is averaging, who signed an 11-year extension worth $350 million ($31.8 million AAV) at 30-years-old in 2023. The Braves have never paid a player on a multi-year deal more than $232million in a season.
If the Braves are serious about keeping Ronald Acuña Jr. a Brave for life, they will have to pay him much closer to what the superstars have made in the last few seasons than they have been paying him since 2019. Otherwise, Acuña will become yet another legendary Braves player who wasn't able to finish his career in one uniform.