In a season with a number of high-profile injuries, there has been no bigger loss than Ronald Acuña Jr. The defending NL MVP tore the ACL in his left knee over the weekend. It’s the second time in the last four years that an ACL tear (in separate knees) has ended his season a few months early.
There’s obviously no way of replacing Acuña with anyone close to the same caliber of player. The Braves will likely need to add to the corner outfield in some form over the next two months, though. Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted yesterday that the Acuña injury will push each of Adam Duvall and Jarred Kelenic into an everyday role. That’s not an ideal position for a team trying to hang with the Phillies at the top of the NL East.
Atlanta bought low on Kelenic over the winter. The former top prospect still hasn’t shown any sign of a legitimate breakout. He has a roughly average .258/.305/.383 batting line over 128 plate appearances. Kelenic’s 31.3% strikeout rate is still much too high, and he’s walking less often (6.3% of the time) than he did during his final season in Seattle. He can hit the ball hard, but he’s still swinging and missing far too frequently. The Braves have also completely shielded him from left-handed pitching. That’ll no longer be the case if he’s playing everyday, and he’s a .188/.252/.307 hitter in 301 career plate appearances against southpaws.
Duvall returned to Atlanta on a $3MM free agent deal midway through Spring Training. His profile is well-established at this point. He hits for power and plays solid defense in the corner outfield. That’ll come with low on-base marks and underwhelming strikeout and walk numbers. Duvall has dramatically cut his swing-and-miss in 99 plate appearances this year, but that’s largely attributable to the Braves leveraging him heavily against left-handed pitching as Kelenic’s platoon partner. Duvall has 14 strikeouts and one walk in 39 plate appearances against righties. At age 35, it seems fair to presume he hasn’t suddenly found a new level of plate discipline.
Let’s run through a few of the likelier possible trade targets for president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos and the Atlanta front office.
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