Injuries have been the story of the Braves 2024 campaign, with the newest victim being Austin Riley, who is out for the rest of the regular season with a fractured wrist. He joins a long list of elite players that have lost at least a month this year, the most famous being Ronald Acuña Jr, who tore his ACL during Memorial Day weekend for the second time in his career.
The Braves star hasn’t been around the club much since then, but he did make the journey to Los Angeles to be with the team over the weekend, speaking with media for the first time in quite a while, and he stated something quite important regarding his strategy in returning to the field. Acuña is going to be considerably more cautious this time around. He’s not going to force it like he did in 2022, making sure he’s 100% before coming back.
It normally takes roughly 8-12 months for athletes to recover from a damaged ACL. In Ronald’s scenario, he tore his ACL in July of 2021 and was playing in games for the Braves in late April of 2022. However, he was a shadow of the player he was prior to the injury, hitting career lows in every major offensive category. He wasn’t horrible by any means, but a year later, he set the league on fire with a historic 40/70 season on his route to his first NL MVP trophy.
Given Ronald Acuña Jr. tore his ACL significantly sooner this season than he did in 2021, a similar schedule puts him on track to be ready for Opening Day. However, it sounds like that’s far from a guarantee. His objective is to be patient, and coming off everything that’s happened this season, I think I speak for everyone of Braves Country when I say, “Take all the time you need.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. isn’t just the face of the Braves, he’s one of the faces of baseball. The game isn’t the same when he isn’t a part of it, and everybody is hopeful he can bounce back again and put together some more history in the future, no matter how long it takes him to recover.
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