North Port, Florida. Atlanta Braves superstar . made a heartwarming statement at spring training on Friday, three days before position players were expected to report. The quote quickly went viral on social media, eliciting a positive response from fans.
“It’s not a secret that I want to be a Brave for life,” He said through a team interpreter after the reigning National League MVP was asked if he wanted to stay with the team beyond his three guaranteed years and two option years. “Yes, that is my hope. I hope I can stay here indefinitely, and maybe we can accomplish it soon.”
In addition to hitting.337, Acuña led the majors in on-base percentage (.416), hits (217), runs (149), and total bases (383). He led the National League with a 1.012 OPS and 168 OPS+.
When asked about Acuña’s desire to be a Brave for life, manager Brian Snitker responded, “I’m sure that’s the hope of all the Braves fans and everyone in the organization.” Because a rare talent like that, you’d love to see him in this uniform, retire, and enter the Hall of Fame with that A on his cap.
Acuña made $17 million in 2023 and will have that same salary this year in the sixth season of a team-friendly eight-year, $100 million contract, which he signed at the beginning of the 2019 season with less than a year of MLB service after playing 118 games in 2018 when he won NL Rookie of the Year over Juan Soto.
If not for a strained hamstring in the final weeks of the 2019 season, Acuña would probably now be the only player with two 40-40 seasons — he had 41 homers and an NL-best 37 steals in 2019, finishing fifth in MVP balloting that year as a 21-year-old in his first full season.
The $17 million salary is the peak amount in his contract — he also gets $17 million in 2025 and 2026, then two club-option years at $17 million in 2027 and 2028. The total value of the deal, assuming both options are exercised, is $124 million over 10 years.
While it would not be surprising if the Braves extend Acuña’s contract at some point, reworking it with a salary more akin to those of other stars making at least twice as much, it seems more likely that such a move would come later in the deal, perhaps before the option years.
But that’s just educated guessing, as the Braves under general manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos are famously covert when it comes to negotiations on extensions of current players or offers to free agents.
Acuña didn’t just win the NL MVP award, he was a unanimous selection, getting all 30 first-place votes to finish far ahead of the next two finishers, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
It says plenty about Acuña’s enormous talent that his teammates and coaches believe he can improve on last season’s unprecedented statistics.
Said Braves first baseman Matt Olson, who finished fourth in the MVP race after setting franchise records with 54 home runs and 139 RBIs, leading the majors in both categories. “I wouldn’t be shocked by anything that he did, honestly.”
Olson smiled and added, “He’s one of the best players in the game, so I’ll sit back and watch.”
Acuña said as long as he stays healthy, he’s confident he’ll continue to perform at such a high level. He doesn’t feel pressure to repeat or improve upon last season.
“I think anything is possible in this game,” he said. “I think if you just put your mind to it and you believe in yourself, and you don’t put limits on yourself and what’s achievable, anything can be achieved.”
Ronald Acuña had a season for the ages last season, but teammates and coaches would hardly be surprised if he reached new highs in 2024. (Brett Davis / USA Today)
Braves hitting coach Kevin Seitzer noted that Acuña had that absurdly good performance last season in his first full, healthy season after major knee surgery in July 2021 that affected him throughout 2022, when soreness lingered and fluid occasionally built up in the repaired knee.
Last season, Acuña came out as if shot from a cannon, and never slumped for any significant period.
“That was dynamic what he did last year,” Seitzer said. “I mean, from the year before, I didn’t know if we’d ever see old Ronnie again. And to see better than old Ronnie? Oh, my gosh. MVP, there you go. Hopefully, he just keeps it going. But to do what he did over 162 last year? Wasn’t any bumps in the road.”
Acuña spent his offseason playing winter ball for about one month in his native Venezuela — that used to be common practice, but few players of his caliber play winter ball anymore — and then returned to the United States to receive various awards, including the MVP award in New York and All-MLB honors in Las Vegas.
He also won the Players Choice Awards for Outstanding NL Player and for overall MLB Player of the Year (over the AL’s Shohei Ohtani).
“I’m really happy that I was able to go play back home in Venezuela, in the home country, and was able to get the opportunity to keep developing and maturing as a ballplayer,” said Acuña, whose Venezuelan team, Tiburones de la Guaira, went on to win the Caribbean World Series after he left the team because of commitments in the United States, including attending Braves Fest and more traveling to receive awards.
He laughed when asked if that award circuit became a burden. “No, I’ll never get tired of winning awards. I hope they keep coming, to be honest. I hope that keeps happening,” he said.
As for continuing to play winter ball in his home state in Venezuela, Acuña said, “It helps you mature as a baseball player, to develop as a baseball player. It’s a league full of veteran players there, so just the environment and the adrenaline is different. And I just feel like the opportunity to develop and grow there, and mature, is very good.”
Acuña worked out plenty during the offseason, as evidenced by videos on his Instagram page. But not all of it was the kind of work to be captured on video.
“I feel like I put in a lot of physical and mental work to be ready, physically and mentally ready, for the season,” he said, before elaborating on the mental part. “Just sort of focusing on how to overcome the difficult times. Everyone on and off the field goes through hard times, and it’s just sort of trying to prepare myself, knowing that those moments are going to happen.”
The Braves saw their record-setting, 104-win season end on a hugely disappointing note for the second year in a row when they lost in four games in an NL Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies — the same division rival that beat them in the NLDS in 2022 after the Braves won 101 games.
Acuña was 2-for-14 with a double and no RBIs in the 2023 NLDS, a series in which the Braves mustered just four extra-base hits. Acuña left the clubhouse without speaking to reporters after the Game 4 loss at Philadelphia, so Friday was his first interview with Atlanta media since that series.
“I played terribly, it’s not a secret,” Acuña said. “But it’s a new year, it’s a new season. So just continue to work, continue to focus, and take it as a new opportunity to go further and do better this season.”
Asked the season ending so abruptly, Acuña said, “To be playing well the entire season, and then have an early-round exit, yeah, it’s frustrating to say the least, and it’s complicated, for sure. And I also just wanted to take this moment to apologize to all of you all, since obviously I was a little frustrated after we lost that series and we didn’t get a chance to talk.
“So I just wanted to take this opportunity to ask for you all’s forgiveness.”
When Snitker was told how Acuña criticized his NLDS performance and apologized for leaving without speaking to reporters, Snitker said it was another sign of his growing maturity.
In a span of seven years, Snitker has seen Acuña go from a baby-faced teen prospect sent over from minor-league camp to play in some big-league spring training games in 2017, to a married father of two young boys and arguably the best position player in baseball.
“That’s the first thing I asked him, ‘Did you bring the kids with you?’” Snitker said of his first conversation Friday with Acuña, who does indeed have his family in Florida for spring training. “It’s kind of cool to watch him, how he interacts with his children, the good dad that he is. It’s amazing (how far) they come. I remember having him, he was in Jupiter playing right field (in a spring training game in 2017), and I think he went into the corner (to make a catch) and (bench coach Terry Pendleton) was beside me and I said, ‘Who in the hell is that who made that throw?’ And it was Ronald.”
