Ronald Acuña Jr is as special a player as the Atlanta Braves have ever had. With him featured at the top of their lineup, they instantly become on of the most potent offenses in Major League Baseball.
As he continues to rake at the plate, Grant McAuley discussed why he has a claim as being the game's best all-around offensive player.
“I don’t know that there is a limit, offensively and all-around, to what this guy does,” McAuley said about the Braves’ star right fielder. “And that's why, as I talked with Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com a little bit earlier, he could be the best all-around player in baseball. I do believe he could be.”
This list excludes, of course, the truly unique nature of Shohei Ohtani is doing for the Los Angeles Angels. He simply has his own category. As Grant concedes, what he is doing is likely something we may never again see on a baseball diamond.
"But Ronald Acuña Jr is easily one of if not the top players, at least in the National League and maybe all the baseball depending on how he's trending and how he's going," he continued. "I will say, and he did it once, a little bit earlier in May, he got a little home run binge where he'll hit one in three, four, or five consecutive games. I think we'll see some multi-home run games.”
The power is certainly coming in spades. According to Sarah Langs of MLB.com, each of his last 10 home runs have traveled at least 420 feet -- the most ever consecutive times a home run has traveled that far. His speed is already well-documented and he is continuing to dominate the base paths en route to 24 stolen bases (second in MLB). Additionally, his batting average (.325) is fourth, his OPS (.966) is fifth, his hits (75) are fourth, his runs scored (50) are second, and his total bases (130) are third.
On the defensive side of things, he has the ability to do things like this:
Or this:
What Ronald Acuña is doing is simply absurd. He can do it all, and there is no player that can do it all quite like him.