Ronald Acuna's tough 2024 season has come to a premature end, after last year's NL MVP suffered a torn ACL Sunday. The injury occurred while Acuna was running the bases early in the Braves 8-1 win over the Pirates, and testing Sunday afternoon confirmed the extent of the injury, which will require season-ending surgery.
It's the second time in the past four seasons that Acuna has suffered a torn ACL – he previously tore the ACL in his right knee in 2021 – and brings what has been a frustrating campaign to an even more frustrating end. Acuna finishes his season hitting .246/.348/.356 with four homers and 16 steals, a far cry from what he managed when he was the unanimous MVP a year ago.
It's an injury that leaves the Braves shorthanded, obviously, and there will be a gigantic hole for Fantasy players to fill, too. On the Braves side of it, the immediate impact is that we'll see Jarred Kelenic and Adam Duvall move from a platoon to both being full-time players, and both have some limited Fantasy appeal; there might be 25-homer ceiling for both of them as full-time players, though their counting stats will likely be pretty middling at the bottom of the lineup, and neither is likely to contribute much outside of cheap power, which makes them just deep-league options at the OF position. The Braves don't have any obvious options to call up from the minors to help replace Acuna, so they'll either ride with Kelenic and Duvall. Which is to say, if you're looking for an Acuna replacement, it won't come from Atlanta's outfield, in all likelihood.
If you play in a shallow league, you could see if Nolan Jones (80% rostered) got dropped, though he's not quite on the verge of coming back from his own back injury, so that's not ideal. A more immediate option could be Lane Thomas (knee), who is working his way back from the IL but has started his minor-league rehab assignment and could be back up to the majors in the next week. He won't help replace what you were hoping to get from Acuna's bat, but he's a terrific base stealer who probably won't be a zero as a hitter, so go check if he's available. In a similar range, you could check if Kerry Carpenter (79%), Jo Adell (74%), or Max Kepler (70%) are available; if you specifically need steals, you could also look for Brenton Doyle (69%), who is up to 16 steals after swiping three Saturday.
Most of you will have to look deeper on the waiver wire for help, and the good news is, there's upside to be found, thanks to some players who have been dropped in a bunch of leagues due to slow starts. That includes Ian Happ (66%), Andy Pages (65%), and Jorge Soler (61%), all of whom have top-30 upside if they can snap out of their recent slides. You could also check in on Luis Matos, a career .289/.357/.498 hitter in Triple-A who hasn't quite found his footing in the majors. At just 22, there's a bit of a power/speed combo, with perhaps a 20-20 ceiling if all goes right.
If you have the patience and are looking for upside elsewhere, you could look for James Wood (62%), a top prospect who has dominated Triple-A as a 21-year-old and should be up for the Nationals at some point this summer. He's been one of Scott White's top prospects to stash for a while, and has the upside to be a true impact player for Fantasy, with five-category potential if he can avoid striking out too much. If anyone was going to make you forget about Acuna, Wood is the rare player who might have that kind of upside.
The same can be said for Jasson Dominguez, who recently moved up to Double-A on his minor-league rehab assignment as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. Dominguez looked like he belonged in his cameo last season before the injury, and the Yankees will have to make a decision about whether to call him up in the next couple of weeks. They don't seem to have an obvious spot for him in the lineup, and might prefer to let him get some more reps in the minors – despite getting the call last summer, he has played just nine games above Double-A and has had real swing-and-miss issues in the minors. Still, the nice thing is, you have an IL spot to play with, you can stash him there until the Yankees make their decision.
If you need to look deeper, well, you start to run out of players with that kind of upside fairly quickly. Jesse Winker (33%) has flashed some this season, and Joey Loperfido (34%) probably still has more than he has shown so far in his major-league career, though he'll need to start tapping into that soon or he won't even remain 34% rostered. Tommy Pham (30%) is probably one of the most under-rostered players in Fantasy right now, though his ceiling feels fairly capped thanks to the miserable White Sox lineup and the likelihood of a trade sometime this July, potentially to a spot where he'll play less often.
If you find the prospect of replacing Acuna with any of those players a pretty underwhelming one, you're not wrong. This is an awful spot to have to be in, having to replace a player who wasn't just the unanimous No. 1 pick in nearly every Fantasy league this spring but who was also valued $10-plus more than any other player in Salary Cap leagues. Acuna was supposed to give you a gigantic edge on the competition; instead, you got two mediocre months from him and now have a gigantic hole in your lineup. And, unless you can make a buy-low trade for Julio Rodriguez, Yordan Alvarez, or Fernando Tatis work, you aren't going to find anyone with comparable upside to what you were hoping for from Acuna.
It's not a season-ruining injury, either for the Braves or your Fantasy roster. But things just got a lot more difficult for you moving forward.
