The Braves 2024 campaign has been marred by injuries; Austin Riley is the most recent casualty, missing the remainder of the regular season due to a fractured wrist. He becomes the latest in a lengthy list of elite athletes who have lost at least a month of play this year. The most prominent is Ronald Acuña Jr., who suffered his second career ACL tear during Memorial Day weekend.
The Braves star hasn’t spent much time with the team lately, but he did travel to Los Angeles to spend the weekend with them. It was his first time meeting reporters in a long time, and he shared some extremely important information about how he plans to return to the field. This time, Acuña will exercise far greater caution. Unlike in 2022, he will ensure he is fully recovered before making a comeback.
Athletes usually require eight to twelve months to heal from an ACL tear. Ronald had an ACL tear in July 2021 while participating in Braves games in late April 2022. But he was a shell of the player he had been before the injury, with career lows in all the key offensive metrics. He wasn’t awful at all, but after a year he won his first NL MVP title and lit the league on fire with a record 40/70 season.
A comparable timeframe puts Ronald Acuña Jr. on track to be ready for Opening Day, considering he tore his ACL more sooner this season than he did in 2021. That doesn’t sound like a guarantee, though. He has patience in mind, and considering all that has transpired thus far this season, I believe I can speak for the entire Braves Country when I say, “Take all the time you need.”
Not only is Ronald Acuña Jr. the face of the Braves, but he is also one of baseball’s faces. Without him, the game isn’t the same, and regardless of how long it takes for him to heal, everyone is hoping he can return and make more history in the future.
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