Braves president announces exciting Ronald Acuna Jr. news

The Atlanta Braves made a woeful start to the season after going 0-7. Injuries to key players didn't make it any easier for Atlanta, who are finally getting close to their potential, after being a .500 team this season.

The 24-24 Braves have reasons to be hopeful as they will be getting back their superstar Ronald Acuna Jr., who has missed the last 12 months of action due to an ACL tear last year.

Acuna, who has been rehabbing in Triple-A, is expected to return to the lineup later this week. Braves general manager and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos updated on the 2023 NL MVP's potential return in a conversation with New York Post Sports.

"What's the timetable there when's he back?" MLB analyst Jon Heyman asked.

Alex Anthopoulos replied (24:00 onwards):

"He is traveling with the minor league team, and he will be spending, at least, we don't have days per se, but you play them back-to-back days in the outfield. We'd like to get him as close to nine Innings as we can in the field. We feel pretty good about his timing at the plate and at-bats.

"He's been playing in sim games and live batting practices since Spring Training opened, so this is about just getting his legs underneath him. So we'll spend the week working him through that, we'll check in daily with the staff, but you should see the workload increase starting on Tuesday. But we'll continue to see how it does, but he's getting very, very close."

Ronald Acuna Jr.'s return will be a big boost for the Braves as the team lost offseason acquisition Jurickson Profar to a 80-game PED suspension at the start of the season.

Braves welcome ace to the lineup as Ronald Acuna Jr.'s return edges closer

While the team is gearing up to welcome back Ronald Acuna Jr., Braves ace Spencer Strider returned to the lineup on Tuesday after missing almost a month of action.

It was Strider's second start in the last year as he missed most of last season due to elbow surgery. It wasn't a pleasant return for Strider as he lasted 4.1 innings, conceding four earned runs over six hits, slumping to 0-2 for the season.

However, with more game time under the belt, the All-Star ace is expected to get back to the form he showed in 2023.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash