CINCINNATI — In 2018, Ronald Acuña Jr. arguably was baseball’s top prospect. He possessed tantalizing potential and unmistakable talent. Braves fans viewed him as a beacon of hope amid a rebuild.
The expectations for Acuña were really, really high.
Did he feel the pressure?
“I think I would say yes,” Acuña said through interpreter Franco García on Friday. “And if I said no, I would probably be lying, simply because whenever you’re kind of a highly ranked prospect like that, I think you apply a lot of self-imposed pressure on yourself to perform and to meet those expectations. So yeah, I think I felt some of that pressure to sort of meet those expectations.”
Acuña spoke those words from the same clubhouse in which he sat before his MLB debut. On April 25, 2018, at Great American Ball Park, Acuña’s major-league journey began. He collected his first career hit.
Five-plus years later, it’s fair to say Acuña has met expectations.
But has he exceeded them?
“I don’t know what the expectations were,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I know we knew we had a really good player, just from spring training. We were excited when he showed up here, I know that, because he helped us, that’s for sure.”
At this point, Acuña seems to be the front-runner for the National League MVP Award. He earned the most All-Star votes of any major-league player and will start his fourth All-Star game. Recently, he said this season is the best he’s ever played, though he feels he can be even better.
He might be baseball’s most popular player.
“Super happy, super proud,” Acuña said of the fans electing him to start in the All-Star game. “Obviously very thankful for the fans who went out and made the effort to vote for me. I hope to do them proud by representing them – representing the fans and the organization of the Atlanta Braves well in the All-Star game.”
Acuña handled all of the hype well. He burst onto the scene and helped the Braves win the first of what is now five consecutive division titles. He’s one of MLB’s true five-tool talents. His popularity is global, which helps the game. And, of course, he helps his team win on most nights.
It all started in Cincinnati.
“It’ll always be special, it will always have a little special place in my heart,” Acuña said of Great American Ball Park. “It was the first big-league ballpark that I kind of got to grow into and make my debut.”
Same thing for Murphy
The update on Sean Murphy is that there’s no update on Sean Murphy.
This is a good thing. On Thursday, he pinch-hit. Snitker said after the game that Murphy would not catch Friday.
He was available off the bench for Friday’s series opener in Cincinnati, which means he didn’t take a step back in any way.
Two hot teams
The Braves arrived in Cincinnati with an eight-game win streak. The Reds opened this series having won 11 in a row.
Entering this weekend’s series, these clubs held the longest active win streaks in baseball.
Friday’s game marked the first between two teams on winning streaks of at least eight games since Aug. 23, 2021, when the Braves and Yankees – owners of nine-game win streaks – played at Truist Park.
Before Friday, there had been only six games in history to feature clubs with win streaks of at least eight games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
