Then I realized he is Venezuelan. I like percentiles because they establish some league-wide context. What’s it all good for, anyway? Acuna ranks tenth, at 150. Updated: Saturday, October 17, 2020 10:52 AM ET, Park Factors Soto and Acuna are likely to have extraordinary careers. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. Earning just over $1 million for his six years after signing as a professional baseball player isn’t nothing, but it’s also not $100 million, and per Jeff Passan, Ronald Acuña Jr. appears set to sign a contract for a guaranteed $100 million over potentially the next 10 years of his professional baseball life. That’s nothing awful, but it was still below average. As such, Acuna was behind 1-and-2, and hitters are always taught to protect with two strikes. If we say Acuña’s arbitration seasons are probably worth around $40 million, and let’s say the Braves take a pretty big discount at 25% to guarantee those seasons, that means the Braves had to guarantee just $70 million for those four free agent seasons and are potentially paying, at most, $94 million over four seasons that don’t even begin until 2025. Since the break, Acuna’s had one of the very lowest chase rates when behind or with two strikes. Especially leading off games. Now he’s become one of the most productive young players in the world, a player who can help his team in almost any facet. We publish thousands of articles a year, host multiple podcasts, and have an ever growing database of baseball stats. The money-maker for Acuna is going to be his bat, and he’s learned on the fly how to apply his magnificent swing to more of the right pitches. I am a common analytical writer, but for this intro I want to focus on a Ronald Acuna single, leading off a game the Braves lost. That’s indicative of remarkable discipline. I didn’t see a major difference between Acuña and Juan Soto and could’ve truly seen the award going either way, so I was a little taken aback when Acuña nabbed 27 of the 30 first-place votes. That vulnerability has disappeared. and play-by-play data provided by Baseball Info Solutions. Acuna was behind 0-and-1, but then he took a close fastball for a ball. The following table is completely ridiculous. Website admin will know that you reported it. Forget the negotiations for the next CBA. Arenado received $60 million for his four seasons of arbitration. We’ve been spoiled, and even in this year’s National League alone, we’ve got the 20-year-old Acuna and the 19-year-old Juan Soto. Acuna took a very close fastball for a ball. Big League Advance is what he’s thinking of. It isn’t hard to justify Ronald Acuña Jr. wanting to secure his future. It seems strange that they’d agree to them if they wanted a “quick payday”. Something that happened for Acuna after the All-Star break is that he started batting leadoff. their wiki page doesn’t have any new athlete IPOs since 2016. The Braves lost to the Cardinals on Monday. If Acuña plays well, the Braves have guaranteed just $20 million or $30 million extra for those four free agent seasons and end up paying just $50-$60 million in total for those years. Pretty much all of Acuna’s vulnerabilities have disappeared. They’re just the two most visible ones. “Call J.G. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted as distributed by STATS. Even if we were to look at players with similar service time like the deals signed by Paul DeJong and Tim Anderson, we find difficult comparisons. But Acuna is also just standing in the box in a different way. So, at 2-and-2, Mikolas decided to come back with a slider away. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, His swing is therefore a little quicker to get going now, and there’s less movement in terms of his eye level. by Handedness, Ronald Acuña Jr.’s New Contract is Staggering. Then he moved up in the lineup. Dan Szymborski ran the ZiPS projections for Acuña’s next eight seasons; he averaged about four and a half wins per season, putting him right in line with expectations for Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rendon this year. We hoped you liked reading Ronald Acuna Is One of the Best Players in Baseball by Jeff Sullivan! If you have to decide whether to swing sooner, your discipline isn’t likely to be good. For this next plot, I’ll show you Acuna’s half-season percentiles in different counts. Those option prices are incredibly small when free agents or free-agents-to-be like Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado are making twice that today, not to mention what salaries might be like eight years from now. Mikolas had thrown the pitch he wanted, but Acuna didn’t offer. Acuna is now consistently in control, less than five months removed from his big-league debut. We publish thousands of articles a year, host multiple podcasts, and have an ever growing database of baseball stats. It’s possible Atlanta wasn’t willing to offer that type of deal — though it seems strange that they wouldn’t be — and drove a hard bargain by offering this deal or nothing. There are two paths to walk down when it comes to putting this contract in perspective. He should fire his agent’s ass, immediately. Ronald Acuña Jr. ATL OF R $36: December 21, 2019 8:57 PM : I Ketel the future: Ronald Acuña Jr. ATL OF R $38: The Musial Suspects: Matt Olson OAK 1B L $11 Walker Buehler LAD SP R $24 : December 18, 2019 2:33 PM : Sexy Singles in YOUR Area Ronald Acuña Jr. ATL OF R $44: Mish the Fish goes Torkeling Mookie Betts LAD OF R $53 He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not. ... Help Support FanGraphs. Which is the perfect kind of aggressive. Over just the past 30 days, Acuna has swung at 20% of pitches out of the strike zone. The league started to adjust to Ronald Acuna. As a result, when we compare the extension to the one Jimenez just signed, the deal looks really light. It wasn’t a batted ball that’s going to show up on any Ronald Acuna highlight reels, but a plate appearance isn’t just about how it ends — it’s also about how it gets there. Happens sometimes. Between halves, Acuna has increased his in-zone swing rate by 24 percentile points. Ronald Acuna has already blossomed into a terror at the plate, and it all comes down to his approach. If you don’t see the ball very well, your discipline isn’t likely to be good. Even if we try to understand the deal through the lens of securing life-changing money, it’s hard to fully comprehend. The first is to compare the deal to the one just signed by Eloy Jimenez. Acuna, obviously, has hit. Here you can see Acuna from earlier July, and Acuna from just the other day: Acuna’s stance has become more closed. Then it gets worse for Acuña, because $10 million of that $100 million guarantee is a buyout of a $17 million option for a ninth season followed by another option for $17 million. by Retrosheet. It’s important to understand everything that goes into what we interpret as plate discipline. You see when Acuna is ahead in the count, when he’s even, when he’s behind in the count, and when he has two strikes. These aren’t even the only contenders. Kiley said he doesnt get any substantial signing bonus, so year it isnt like he got rich right away. The Braves have won plenty of games, and Ronald Acuna has hit plenty of homers. In 2014, the Braves phenom received a signing bonus of $100,000 and then spent the next three and a half years making almost nothing. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous. Please support FanGraphs by becoming a member. The ball was hit well enough, but to understand what Acuna has already become, it’s most important to look at the process. That ranks him 11th-lowest, out of 169 players. And please don't worry, your report will be anonymous. Acuña won’t likely be a free agent until the CBA after that one kicks in. Acuna was already a proven ML guy at this point, BLA is very focused on young players in the minors, since they have so much more leverage over the player. Ronald Acuna Jr. graphs for Major League baseball. Out of the 196 players who have batted this year at least 400 times, Soto ranks ninth in wRC+, at 151.