After an 0-4 performance in the Atlanta Braves' loss to the Cubs on Tuesday, it is becoming very clear that Ronald Acuña Jr. is off right now. While his return from knee surgery went extremely well, Acuña Jr. has seemingly struggled to bounce back into form after his Achilles'/calf injury. In fact, some fans are already concerned that there is something deeply wrong with Acuña Jr. and it could bleed into 2026 and beyond.
Again, the fear is understandable here. With Acuña Jr.'s injury history combined with the fact that he has slashed .200/.333/.277 with just a single home run in the 18 games since coming back for the second time this season, it is hard not to connect some dots.
However, a closer look suggests that while Acuña Jr. certainly hasn't been good lately, Braves fans shouldn't be panicking over his long-term prognosis. At least, not yet.
Ronald Acuña Jr.'s slump doesn't seem like it should last (we hope)
If Acuña looked like he was running around hurt or his swing had slowed down or something, that would be something to really worry about. However, there doesn't seem to be anything physically wrong with him that we can see despite the results being obviously not good. A closer look suggests that a certain amount of bad batted ball luck combined with Acuña's timing being off just a little bit off could be the cause of his issues here.
Despite what it may seem like in the moment, Acuña Jr. is actually striking out less during this stretch than he was before he got hurt. His walk rate has gone down a little bit, but it is still at a very robust 14ish% since coming back. He is still hitting the ball hard as well. Using Tuesday's game against Chicago as an example, Acuña Jr. put three balls in play and all three were hit 93 mph or greater including two over 100 mph.
At first glance, it just seems like Acuña is just a little bit off from terrorizing the league once again. The sweet spot has eluded him lately leading to a lot of hard hit ground balls at defenders and sharp fly balls that hang up in the air for easy outs. Again, if he was only hitting dribblers and striking out a ton, that would be one thing. For the moment, Acuña deserves a bit of patience as he works through this rough stretch.
However, if he doesn't figure things out by the end of the season, fans are going to freaking out all offseason long.