Can Acuña Jr. reach fantasy ceiling after return?
With Ronald Acuña Jr. back in Atlanta's lineup, Eric Samulski analyzes his fantasy outlook, including concerns about recent injuries, declining contact metrics and stolen-base production.
Video Transcript
Brave star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. Made his return to the lineup on Monday after being activated from the injured list following a hamstring strain.
Acuna went one for four against the Mets.
He did lead off and played the outfield for the entire game, so that's a good sign for the hamstring strain that he wasn't just relegated to DH duties.
Acuna has played just eight games since the start of June while battling soft tissue injuries.
Now he does have, 15 stolen bases in 54 games this season.
He has been caught seven times, which isn't great, but he had three stolen bases in seven games in June.
So even after the early, soft tissue injury, he was back and running again, so it remains to be seen if he will continue to run.
The stolen base upside is obviously important for his fantasy value, but now that he has his second soft tissue injury, you have to think the Braves have asked him or would like him, to limit his running a little bit.
It's also been a little bit of a down season for him in other ways.
He has a career low hard hit rate.
He has the second lowest pull rate ever.
He has his highest, launch angle ever, but that's actually led to his second lowest homer to fly ball rate ever.
And so there are some things in terms of his contact, quality, in terms of his contact profile that Acuna would like to improve on.
He's chasing more outside of the zone than he ever has, and his c- zone contact rate actually hasn't been above 80% since 2023, and that was his last full healthy season.
So you have to wonder if he's starting to press a little bit because of these injuries.
Still, Acuna Jr. Is certainly somebody you want in your lineup.
We do have to wonder, though, if we're gonna see the highs that we- we're used to seeing from the Braves outfielder.
