That sound you hear is Maxine Nightengale singing about the current state of the Braves outfield.
With the astonishingly ill-fated and poor decision from all involved (including the player himself) to let Ronald Acuña Jr. play through a sore Achilles bearing the toxic fruit of an IL stint for Acuña, the team has made his move to the IL official and called up his replacement. That man is Jarred Kelenic, who will be back in the Atlanta Braves outfield for what feels like the foreseeable future.
The #Braves today recalled OF Jarred Kelenic to Atlanta and placed OF Ronald Acuña Jr. on the 10-day injured list with right Achilles tendon inflammation.
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 30, 2025
Before getting sent down, Kelenic hit for .167/.231/.300 with a .237 wOBA, 47 wRC+ and two home runs over 23 games played and 65 plate apperances — good for a grand total of -0.5 fWAR on the season. There was hope that Jarred Kelenic moving from a pitcher-friendly ballpark in Seattle to an environment that suited his hitting profile would’ve helped out but so far that hasn’t been the case — he was only an 87 wRC+ hitter last year over 131 games and 449 plate appearances.
Kelenic hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire down on the farm, either. He’ll be returning to the Braves after hitting .218/.289/.321 with a .282 wOBA and 65 wRC+ along with four homers for the Gwinnett Stripers so far. So similar to how the Braves are essentially plugging in guys to just keep the lights on in their rotation right now, this is a move that is solely meant to make sure the Braves have A Guy out there in the outfield. I can’t try to sugarcoat it, y’all — it is what it is. As far as Atlanta’s lineup goes, with Kelenic returning to the fold, the outfield is now right back to where they started from. Hit it, Maxine.
Anyways, here’s hoping that Acuña’s MRI on his Achilles does just reveal inflammation and not anything like a tear. According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, they’re not expecting a really bad injury but it’s still a shame to go on the IL in this manner. Here’s also hoping that the Braves begin to reevaluate how they handle player rotation and management because this is not the first time this has happened with a star player for the Braves and unless nothing changes, it probably won’t be the last time, either.