Ronald Acuña Jr could be back with the Atlanta Braves as soon as today. Ronald is returning to the Braves after straining his left hamstring in consecutive months. They have been much more careful with Sean Murphy, Ha-Seong Kim and Ronald after shorter IL stints earlier this season. In light of his numerous lower body injuries, I was wondering if they might ease him back into the lineup. I was also wondering if this option is even considered by the Braves and Acuña.
One of the big themes of the last
two months is the rally of save the bullpen. Right now, no reliever pitches three days in a row. In some cases, some relievers are not allowed to go on consecutive days. And we saw this last night. Elieser Hernández pitched 3 innings of 3 walk/2 strikeout ball (to be fair, one walk was intentional). He hadn’t pitched since July 12th in Gwinnett, and hadn’t pitched in the major league in two years. It’s fair to say he was rested, and he carried the Braves through the late innings as Raisel Iglesias and Didier Fuentes did not appear. It might also be fair to say that he will enter the DFA cycle later today.
For the great lengths that the Braves are going to preserve their bullpen throughout the season, they aren’t bothering to rest the everyday players. Austin Riley has started every game but one, and has been asked to work through his struggles. Mauricio Dubon has started 98 games. Matt Olson is going to play every game as well, as they won’t pull him off his streak. It seems that the only way for everyday players to get a rest is to pull a muscle.
In the first 8 games of Ronald’s return after his first 2026 IL stint, he put together a .167/.306/.206 with a 53 wRC+. His xwOBA wasn’t terrible at .304, but it did take him a week to get back in the swing of baseball bats. So they may not miss a lot if the Braves ease him back into playing everyday. Maybe they could put him at DH for a couple of days, then gave him a full day off, followed by two of the next three games in the field.
So how much should Ronald Acuña Jr play in his first week back? I’m not sure of the answer, but I think we all know what will happen.
