Should Braves Fans Panic About Superstar's Slow Start?

The Atlanta Braves are hitting on almost all cylinders this season except for homers from the stars

Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. has hit only one homerun in his first 89 plate appearances, a career-low rate. / Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves have the best record in baseball at 14-5 (.737 winning percentage) thanks to an offense that leads baseball in several categories despite underperformance from the top of the lineup from a homer perspective.

But there's one significant player that's underperformed to the point where some fans are starting to be concerned.

Reigning National League MVP Ronald Acuña Jr has hit just one homer in his first 89 plate appearances, a career-low 1.1% homer rate. His 65 at-bat stretch before his first homer of 2024, which came last Wednesday against the Houston Astros, was the 5th-longest season-opening homer drought for a player that hit more than 40 homers the previous year.

And so Bleacher Report asked the question: What's the "panic meter" on Ronald Acuña Jr.?

Writer Zachary Rymer broke down four hitters and four pitchers that started off 2024 relatively cold, as compared to either last year's performance or our preseason expectations (or in Acuña's case, both.)

Here's what Rymer said about Acuña's start to the season:

Even after he finally got his first home run of the year on Wednesday, the question remains: Where is Ronald Acuña Jr.'s power?
It's hard to pin a power outage on bad luck even in the best of times, and especially not in this case. Both the consistency and the quality of his contact have taken a turn for the worse, as his strikeout rate is up and his exit velocity is down.
He's also being pitched differently, particularly by way of a steady diet of high fastballs that's thus far contributed to a career-high 30.4 whiff percentage on fastballs. To this end, he simply must adjust.
There's also the question of the health of his right knee. That was the site of his ACL tear in 2021 and the soreness that slowed his progress this spring. If it's not 100 percent, then that's not great. We know from 2022 how much a compromised right knee can hold Acuña back.

But despite all of that, Rymer argues that the grade shouldn't be more than a two (out of five, which...what kind of monster does a one through five rating system? Rating out of ten is obviously much better for granular scores, as I'd say three out of ten is more appropriate than a two out of five.)

And Rymer's reason for "only" a two?

Yet even if his 2023 power doesn't come back, what Acuña is doing now is a solid proof of concept that he'll be fine. If he ends up with an OBP over .400 and 70-plus stolen bases, nobody will be in a position to complain too loudly.

I'd argue that Acuña's not going to hit at a 1.1% homer rate all season, and that'll naturally tick back up when he adjusts to the heavier diet of high fastballs. As Ronald continues to get his timing back after missing a large portion of the spring training schedule, expect this to naturally normalize toward his career averages.

It also feels like Ronald's been in a groove since the off-day in the Mets series, with his last ten games seeing him hit .351/.489/.487 with three extra-base hits (including the homer), eight stolen bases, and seven walks to nine strikeouts. Ronald also got on base in nine of those ten games, with the 16-4 blowout by the Mets the only time he failed to reach base during this stretch.

In the nine games before that to open the season, Acuña was hitting .222/.333/.278 with six walks to thirteen strikeouts, only two extra-base hits (both doubles), and only one stolen base, which came in the season opener.

While it's a slow start from a power production standpoint for Acuña, it doesn't mean he can't challenge for a 40/40 season yet again. In 2023, he hit two homers in the first four games of the season and then went on a bit of drought from a longball perspective, finishing April with only four.

So it's not too late for Ronald's production to rebound, and he's too talented to count on it doing anything but that.