One player who has clearly taken advantage of the proving ground for young players that is spring training is the game’s top prospect himself — Ronald Acuna Jr.
The Braves will play the service-time game with Ronald Acuna Jr. for better or worse
Wednesday’s Say Hey Baseball takes a look at why Atlanta’s best left fielder won’t be in left field on Opening Day. Plus, we have news about Tim Tebow that will shake you to your very core.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Spring training stats may not matter much but the crown jewel of the Braves’ highly-rated farm system has done nothing but be productive since the spring games started in late February. In an ideal world, he would already be penciled in as Atlanta’s starting left fielder for Opening Day and then the hype train for a player with an unreal amount of potential would finally leave the train station at hyper speed.
This ideal world with high-speed bullet trains here in the United States wouldn’t have such a thing as “service-time concerns,” since the phrase in scare quotes is the only reason why Acuna will more-than-likely start this season in Triple-A. He’ll spend a couple of weeks feasting on a level of competition that he has already outgrown before eventually making his big league debut in mid-April. In the meantime, instead of riding the high-speed hype train from the very start of the season, the Braves will lumber from the train station on a humble choo-choo train.
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We all know why the Braves are planning on doing this. This is what the Cubs did in 2015 with Kris Bryant and while Chicago and Bryant ended up having a great season that year, the main question going in was whether or not the games Bryant spent idling in Triple-A would end up costing the Cubs in a potential playoff race.
For better or worse, the Braves may not be in a position to worry about a potential playoff run, but they may have to worry about incurring the wrath of the MLBPA for playing the service-time game. The heat on them isn’t substantial right now, but as Matt Snyder of CBS Sports pointed out, the conversation surrounding this issue could make things hotter for Atlanta if Acuna continues to mash during spring training. It’s an extremely long shot but the Braves could be forced to board the hype train earlier than expected if things get too hot for them in that regard.
- This happened on Monday but MLB just got around to posting this cunning exhibition of defense on Twins catcher Willans Astudillo’s part. Shane Robinson of the Yankees was lingering a bit too far from first base and Astudillo made him pay for it.
- You’ll probably be hearing a lot about Peter Alonso in the future (at least the Mets sure hope so) but as far as the present goes, the prospect made an exciting catch Tuesday night. It should have been mundane, but where’s the fun in that?
- As if we needed more of a reason to be in awe of Mike Trout, Zach Kram of The Ringer pointed out something very scary: The worst version of Trout could still be a star player in this league.
- On the other side of the spectrum, Sam Miller of ESPN tried to figure out which team would be the best if every player was in their prime.
- This may come as one of the biggest shocks of spring training to you but Tim Tebow did not make the major league team. The Mets sent him to minor league camp on Tuesday.
- Troy Tulowitzki has been dealing with a bone spur in his heel for the entirety of spring training and it’s forced him into a likely DL stint to start the season.
- Speaking of the Blue Jays, they recently released Ezequiel Carrera and it didn’t take long for the Braves to sign him.
- The Cubs are the prohibitive favorites in the NL Central and the Brewers have been one of the busier teams this offseason, but Viva El Birdos recently made the argument that the Cardinals are going to win that division this year.
- If you are in New York City on April 21-22 and you don’t partake in the MLB Food Fest that’s going on, I will be very disappointed in you for not eating everything there on my behalf.
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