Ronald Acuna, the Braves’ organizational Player of the Year award winner, received praise Monday from MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo.
Mayo ranked minor league position players who boosted their stock the most over the past season. Acuna was the first name that came up.
Which @MLB hitting prospects improved their stock
📈 the most this year?
looks at 15 bullish 🐂 batters:
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline)
“Acuna began the year just off of the Top 100, much to the chagrin of Braves fans, but that slight was corrected in the early stages of the 2017 season,” Mayo said. “He then proceeded to make the Minor Leagues look easy, going from the Class A Advanced Florida State League all the way up to Triple-A, all at the age of 19. After finishing with a .325/.374/.522 line to go along with 21 homers and 44 steals, he should hit Atlanta at age 20.”
Ranked the Braves' No. 1 prospect and sixth overall by MLB.com, Acuna is expected to compete for a spot on the 2018 opening-day roster. He said he didn't understand the reasoning behind the franchise not promoting him when rosters expanded, but becoming an everyday player next season is his priority.
Among the many awards Acuna’s earned was Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year. He joined Jason Heyward and Andruw Jones (twice) as Braves outfielders to win the prestigious honor.
"He's really good," Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson said. "It's pretty amazing. I think just the skill set that he has is tremendous. There's guys who are good, and guys who get everything out of what they've got, then there's guys like Acuna that can do it all and make it look really, really easy when they do it."
