Ronald Acuña Jr. Out For 2024 Season with Left ACL Tear

The Atlanta Braves confirmed the worst outcome for the star rightfielder's knee injury suffered this afternoon in Pittsburgh.

Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. injured his left knee this afternoon in Pittsburgh and will miss the rest of the 2024 season. / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

TITLE: Ronald Acuña Jr. Out For 2024 Season with Left ACL Tear

The Atlanta Braves got the news that they feared. 

And they’ve lost him once again. 

The Braves confirmed tonight that the injury suffered by Ronald Acuña Jr. in Sunday’s victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates was a complete left ACL tear. He will have surgery “at a date yet to be determined” and will miss the remainder of the 2024 season. 

It’s a tough pill to swallow for last season’s Most Valuable Player, as he’s set to once again not only miss significant time, but face a lengthy rehab process and then be forced to adjust to major league competition again. 

In 2021, Acuña was having one of the best statistical starts to his career at that time, batting .283/.394/.596 with 24 homers and 17 stolen bases when he tore his right ACL trying to make a leaping catch against the Miami Marlins. He missed the remaining 80 games of the 2021 season and the entire World Series championship run for Atlanta. 

Returning in late April of 2022, Acuña clearly wasn’t himself, batting .266/.351/.413 with only fifteen homers while leading the National League with eleven times caught stealing. He admitted during the 2023 season that he struggled with the return to play process, specifically with gaining mental comfort and security in the surgically repaired knee.

It’s not the first injury to the left knee for Acuña, either. In May of 2018, he missed about a month after hyperextending the knee in a Sunday getaway day game against the Boston Red Sox when trying to beat out an infield single. Acuña commented to the media after today’s game that this injury felt similar to the 2018 injury, and he expected to miss about a month before returning to play. 

But with the results of tonight’s MRI being rather conclusive that it was a complete tear of the left ACL, Acuña is once again facing an offseason of rehab to get back on the field. The surgery, which has yet to be scheduled, is likely to be performed once again by Dr. Neal El Attrache, the sports medicine surgeon who not only performed Acuña’s 2021 repair but also evaluated him for a right knee injury in spring training. 

Acuña had an “irritated meniscus” of the right knee in spring training, happening during a rundown on the basepaths. He missed about two weeks of Grapefruit League play, but after rest and some rehab work, he returned in time to make the Opening Day lineup for the team’s first game in Philadelphia. 

Despite not missing a game so far in 2024, Acuña hasn’t performed anywhere near the lofty standard he set last season, when he was the unanimous choice for National League Most Valuable Player over Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Acuña’s season will conclude with the outfielder batting just .246/.348/.356, a far cry from last season’s .337/.416/.596 line. 

Adam Duvall and Jarred Kelenic are expected to take everyday roles in the absence of Acuña, with an outfielder expected to be promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett for bench depth.