{"id":56917,"date":"2025-05-23T00:48:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T00:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56917"},"modified":"2025-05-23T00:48:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T00:48:35","slug":"braves-expected-to-activate-ronald-acuna-on-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56917","title":{"rendered":"Braves Expected To Activate Ronald Acuna On Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<header>By Anthony Franco | <time datetime=\"2025-05-22T19:02:31-05:00\">May 22, 2025<\/time> at <time datetime=\"2025-05-22T19:02:31-05:00\">7:02pm CDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr.<\/strong> is seemingly one day away from his return to Truist Park. The Braves scratched Acu\u00f1a from what would have been his sixth rehab appearance with Triple-A Gwinnett. Daniel \u00c1lvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reports that Acu\u00f1a is en route to meet the team in Atlanta. Francys Romero adds that the Braves intend to activate him from the injured list before tomorrow\u2019s series opener against the Padres.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s three days shy of the one-year anniversary of Acu\u00f1a\u2019s season-ending ACL tear. On May 26, 2024, he tore the ligament in his left knee while bluffing a stolen base attempt. It was the second time in his seven-year career that a season had been cut short by a devastating knee injury. Acu\u00f1a tore the ACL in his right knee in July 2021, sidelining him for their World Series run.<\/p>\n<p>Acu\u00f1a made a quicker return from his first ACL tear. He was reinstated before the end of April 2022. He showed some signs of rust throughout that year, hitting .266\/.351\/.413 the rest of the way. That was well below his 2018-21 production. He followed with a career-best season to win the 2023 NL MVP award. He\u2019d been out to a slower start last season, batting .250\/.351\/.365 across 49 games.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves took things more slowly with Acu\u00f1a\u2019s second ACL rehab. He didn\u2019t log any game action in Spring Training and has spent the first two months of the season on the IL. Atlanta sent him to their complex to begin a rehab assignment 10 days ago. He played one game there before reporting to Gwinnett, where he collected five hits and took seven walks in five games. The Braves have evidently seen enough to plug him back into Brian Snitker\u2019s lineup, presumably in his customary leadoff spot.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alex Verdugo<\/strong> has been hitting atop the order while playing every day in left field. He\u2019s struggling offensively for a second consecutive year. Verdugo has hit .257\/.314\/.330 without a home run in 118 plate appearances. That\u2019s on par with his .233\/.291\/.356 batting line in last season\u2019s disappointing run with the Yankees.<\/p>\n<p>Acu\u00f1a has been a full-time right fielder over the past half-decade. He\u2019ll slot back into that position, where\u00a0Eli White has played his way into regular playing time. He could slide to left field and cut into Verdugo\u2019s reps. White hit .311\/.367\/.600 with eight extra-base hits in April. His bat has cooled this month (.269\/.310\/.358 with no home runs), but that\u2019s still a bit better than what Verdugo has provided.<\/p>\n<p>White hits right-handed but has been better without the platoon advantage throughout his career. The lefty-hitting Verdugo is much better against righty pitching, as expected. <strong>Jurickson Profar<\/strong> will be back from his PED suspension in July. He\u2019ll presumably return to everyday left field work, though he\u2019d be ineligible for postseason play if the Braves qualify.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta has clawed back to .500 following their 0-7 start to the season. They\u2019re three games back of the NL\u2019s final Wild Card spot, which is currently held by the team they\u2019ll welcome tomorrow. San Diego swept the Braves over a four-game set to open the year, but they\u2019re taking a six-game losing streak into this weekend\u2019s series.<\/p>\n<p>The Braves technically only need to create an active roster spot for Acu\u00f1a\u2019s return from the 10-day IL, but they\u2019re quite likely to designate someone for assignment tomorrow. <strong>Drake Baldwin<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Michael Harris II<\/strong> are the only hitters on the active roster who have minor league options.\u00a0<strong>Luke Williams<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Stuart Fairchild<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Orlando Arcia<\/strong> are all out of options and have seen little to no playing time off the bench in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p>View Comments (14)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ronald Acuna Jr. will reportedly make his return on Friday. Find out what it means for Atlanta&#8217;s lineup at MLB Trade Rumors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":56918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1008],"class_list":["post-56917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-ronald-acuna"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Braves Expected To Activate Ronald Acuna On Friday - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=56917\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Braves Expected To Activate Ronald Acuna On Friday - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ronald Acuna Jr. will reportedly make his return on Friday. 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