BREAKING: Ronald Acuña Jr. Leaves Game With Trainers After Non-Contact Leg Injury

The Atlanta Braves just lost their best player in the first inning of today's game

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

The early hole the Atlanta Braves are in the National League East standings just got a little bit harder to dig out of. 

Because the Braves might have to do it without their best player. 

2023 Most Valuable Player Ronald Acuña Jr. just left today’s game with a left knee injury. After a leadoff double, Ronald went to bluff a steal of third base and fell to the ground in a heap after attempting to plant his foot and return to second base. Trainers came out to attend to the outfielder, but he was unable to put his weight on the left leg and limped off the field. 

It’s a different leg than his 2021 ACL tear, which was of the right knee when attempting to make a leaping catch at the wall against the Miami Marlins. Acuña missed the rest of that season, including Atlanta’s World Series championship run that October, before returning early in the 2022 season. He wasn’t the same player during the process of regaining trust in the surgically repaired right knee, batting only .266/.351/.413 with fifteen homers in his 115 games. 

But Ronald got back to his stellar form the next season, winning the 2023 MVP in the National League after batting .337/.416/.596 with 41 homers and 73 stolen bases, only baseball’s fifth 40/40 season and the first to exceed 70 (or 60 or 50) stolen bases in doing so. 

It’s not the first knee scare for Ronald this season - the outfielder missed almost two weeks of spring training after tweaking his knee in a rundown. He was examined both there in North Port and then in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal El Attrache, the same surgeon who performed his ACL repair, and was diagnosed with just an irritated meniscus. 

Ronald was replaced in this game by Adam Duvall, who shifted from left field to right field, and Jarred Kelenic, who entered the game in left field and in Ronald’s leadoff spot in the lineup. 

Ronald Acuña Jr. exits the game due to a non-contact injury on the bases. pic.twitter.com/RHZCJ9ldBe

— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) May 26, 2024