WASHINGTON, D.C. — For just the second time this season, Ronald Acuña Jr. sent a high heater screaming into the seats.
On a wet, sparsely attended Wednesday in the nation’s capital, Atlanta’s sweet-swinging showman absolutely unloaded on a 0-0 fastball from Nationals reliever Max Kranick. Acuña, bat still in hand, strolled toward first base while admiring his handiwork. Six seconds later, when the baseball crested over the left-field wall, Acuña pointed toward the sky in celebration and, perhaps, relief. He hadn’t homered in nearly three weeks. And this was the 200th long ball of his career, making Acuña the single fastest player in MLB history to reach 200 homers and 200 steals.
“It’s an honor to [be at the top of that list],” Acuña said postgame. “I know how hard I’ve worked to be here.”
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Acuña has lived quite the baseball life, enduring more before his 30th birthday than most do in a career. Yes, he was blessed by the heavens with a rocket right arm and lightning-quick bat speed. But the hardball gods also gave him two torn ACLs, one on each knee, taking away time he’ll never get back. He watched the 2021 Braves make history from the dugout.
That tumultuous journey makes milestones such as the one Acuña reached Wednesday all the more gratifying. But in the context of this Braves season and this Acuña season, it was particularly encouraging to see the scuffling slugger demolish a high heater, something he has struggled to do all year.
“When he’s getting to heaters,” Braves skipper Walt Weiss said following his team’s 9-0 drubbing of Washington, “that’s a good sign.”
The Braves will hope it’s also a sign of things to come, considering what an odd, disjointed season it has been for their 28-year-old star.
A nagging left hamstring has twice pushed Acuña onto the shelf, forcing him to miss more than 50 games. And even during the windows of health, he has looked far from his best self. The 2023 NL MVP is sporting career-low figures in batting average and on-base percentage. Among the 204 hitters with at least 350 plate appearances this season, Acuña’s .404 slugging percentage ranks 119th. He has been worth just 0.9 fWAR, the 11th-best mark on his own team.
And things haven’t been going any better since he returned from his most recent IL stint on July 27; since then, Acuña is rocking an uncharacteristically underwhelming .217/.289/.380 line.
All the while, Atlanta has rolled.
After a shocking, October-less 2025, the Braves have put themselves in phenomenal position to return to the postseason. With their victory and the Phillies’ loss Wednesday, Atlanta retains a four-game lead in the NL East with an 83-57 record. That resurgence is most attributable to huge offensive campaigns from Matt Olson, Drake Baldwin and Michael Harris II, as well as a Cy Young-caliber showing from the eternally brilliant Chris Sale. The bullpen has also been dynamite, and Weiss should win Manager of the Year.
But while Acuña, in spurts, has certainly helped the cause, the 2026 version of him has produced more like a supporting character than a franchise cornerstone.
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Really, it has all been about the fastball.
For years, Acuña was one of the league’s most dangerous hitters against heaters. That was particularly true during his historic 2023 campaign, but even as recently as last season, the twitchy outfielder ranked ninth in Statcast’s run-value metric against four-seamers. Entering play Wednesday, he ranked 342nd this season.
His struggles against fastballs have been particularly loud at the top of the strike zone and just above it. Here’s a chart via TruMedia showing Acuña’s expected slugging percentage on fastballs in the upper-third and higher since 2021.
Acuña’s xSLG on high fastballs since 2021
And here’s that same trend visualized with heat maps.
Acuña’s expected slugging on high fastballs, 2021-2025 and in 2026
This year, Acuña is also chasing fastballs up far more often than he did in any other season in his career. Last season, his chase rate on high heaters was 7.3%. This year, it’s 21.4% (which, to be clear, is still below league-average). Teams and pitchers have certainly noticed; Acuña, since returning from the IL, has seen the sixth-highest percentage of four-seam fastballs of any qualified hitter.
Given his age and injury history — again, Acuña has had both of his ACLs surgically repaired — this all qualifies as a concerning trend. Because even though his raw bat speed remains near-elite, it has declined by a full mile per hour since 2023. Athleticism is a full-body endeavor. Those margins matter. Pitchers are throwing harder than ever. A millisecond can be the difference between dominance and despair.
It’s on Acuña, then, to make the necessary adjustments. And there are a number of avenues. He could cut his chase rate, set his sights lower and force pitchers into the zone more often. He could cheat to heaters against certain pitchers in certain spots. He could do offseason bat-speed training. He could seek to shorten his swing path.
Acuña admitted after Wednesday’s game that he hasn’t made any major adjustments in regard to elevated fastballs. Instead, he’s sticking with his routine, likely in the hope that the further he gets from his injuries, the quicker, the better he’ll feel in the box. His manager expressed a similar sentiment.
“Ronald, he’s capable of pretty much anything on the field, you know?” Weiss said. “And he’s missed a lot of time in the last couple years. It takes time for those guys to get caught back up to the speed of the game.”
Was Wednesday’s blast a harbinger? Is Acuña starting to shake off the rust? Or was it merely an aberration, and adjustments are still necessary?
Time, of course, will tell. But this season’s clock is ticking, ticking as October beckons for Acuña and the Braves.
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