Braves Call Up Top Prospect In Baseball Ronald Acuna, Who Will Be In The Lineup Tonight Batting Sixth

Braves fans, the future is now. Tonight in Cincinnati, we witness the birth of the Ronald Acuna Era in Atlanta, as the Braves have called up their top prospect, who also happens to be the top prospect in baseball. Back in spring, Acuna set the world on fire when he hit .432 with a 1.247 OPS in 44 at-bats. And then he was sent down.

You know how it goes, though. In order to squeeze an extra year of control out of Acuna, the Braves sent the 20-year-old outfielder down to Triple-A to start the year, despite him clearly earning a spot on the Opening Day roster. That was to be expected, but the important thing is that he’s here now, joining the rest of Atlanta’s young studs.

Ozzie Albies leads the league in runs (21) and doubles (9), Dansby Swanson is hitting .326 with an .888 OPS, Sean Newcomb has punched out 27 batters in 21.2 innings with a 3.74 ERA, and Luiz Gohara has struck out 31 batters in 29.1 innings this year. The average age of those four players plus Acuna? 22 years old. Acuna (20 years, 128 days) and Albies (21 years, 28 days) are now the youngest players in Major League Baseball, sharing a lineup together.

I’m no scout, but the folks whose specialty it is to evaluate talent on the baseball field are saying that Acuna has the makings of a legit five-tool player. I’m reluctant to slap that tag on a player who has yet to play in a major league game, as five-tool players are very hard to come by. Mike Trout is certainly one. Who else? Does Yoenis Cespedes count? Point is, it’s not very common to see.

However, if Acuna is the real deal and he becomes as good as they project him to become, then he might be the next five-tool player in Major League Baseball. That’s great for the Braves, sure, but that’s also great for the game of baseball. The more stars, the better.