Acuña Jr. ready to lead Braves in postseason

This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Ronald Acuña Jr. entered the media interview room wearing his brand new 40/70 T-shirt on Friday evening. His shirt commemorated his historic regular season. His smile exuded the excitement he feels as he prepares to enter the postseason in healthy fashion.

“He's probably the one guy that's coming through his skin right now to get this thing started,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Coming off a great year like he did, I know he can’t wait to get this thing started and perform on that platform.”

Acuña was recovering from a torn ACL when the Braves won the 2021 World Series. The knee injury continued to limit him as the defending World Series champs were eliminated by the Phillies in the National League Division Series last year.

So, it’s easy to understand why he might be carrying a little extra energy into this year’s postseason. The Braves will begin their NLDS rematch against the Phillies tonight at 6:07 ET.

“We have high expectations, and I think for us, it's just about going out there and playing the game we've been playing all season long,” Acuña said through an interpreter.

It might be easier to list what Acuña didn’t accomplish this year. But in case you need a refresher, the Braves outfielder became the first player to ever hit 40-plus homers and tally 70-plus stolen bases in the same season. Given nobody had ever stolen more than 46 bases during a 40-homer season, he also produced the first 40-50 and 40-60 seasons.

Acuña ended up hitting 41 home runs with an MLB-leading 73 steals. He broke the franchise’s modern era, single-season stolen base record Otis Nixon had set with 72 steals in 1991.

Acuña finished his MVP-caliber season hitting .337 with 41 home runs, 217 hits, 80 extra-base hits, 106 RBIs, 149 runs, a 1.012 OPS and 84 strikeouts. He joins Lou Gehrig (1927), Chuck Klein (‘30) and Joe DiMaggio (‘37) as the only players who have hit at least .335 with 40 home runs, 215 hits, 80 extra-base hits, 100 RBIs, 145 runs and a 1.000 OPS with fewer than 90 strikeouts.

Doing something the game hasn’t seen since 1937 is MVP-worthy. And it doesn’t even account for a single stolen base.

Acuña spent all of the 2022 season trying to convince himself he was healthy and capable of consistently proving to be elite. But he now recognizes how much different he feels entering this year’s postseason.

“Completely different. I feel like I did back in 2019 when I was a player who could just play without restrictions," he said. "Yeah, I feel comfort knowing that I'm going into it 100 percent healthy and I know all the work that I put in coming into this moment, all the restless and sleepless nights thinking about this opportunity to be back in the postseason and all the work that was put into just being here.”