Dansby on Acuna: ‘He’s a better athlete than everybody else’

Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson isn’t worried about 20-year-old outfielder Ronald Acuna becoming adversely affected by huge and ever-increasing expectations and hype surrounding the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball.

“I’ve already seen him,” said Swanson, who played some with Acuna at spring training a year ago and then briefly last summer at Triple-A Gwinnett. “He’s special. I hope that he has the maturity to just be able to go out there and just play and enjoy himself because you don’t want to put any extra pressure on yourself and let that hold you down. He’ll be fine. He’s a tremendous talent.”

Asked what made Acuna special, Swanson smiled and said: “He’s a better athlete than everybody else. You’ll just have to wait and see. I mean, it’s pretty special. It’s one of those things that’s even hard to explain really. If you just watch it, you can tell there’s a difference, whether you know a lot about baseball or whether you know nothing, you just kind of say, that guy is doing something right.”