The Braves have re-assigned much-hyped prospect Ronald Acuna to minor-league camp, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was among those to report on Twitter. He’ll presumably open the season at Triple-A.
It’s rarely notable when a 20-year-old is moved out of major-league camp. Then again, it’s fairly rare even to see a player of that age on the MLB side in the first place.
Acuna is a particularly special case. He began the 2017 season as a highly-regarded but largely untested youngster and finished the campaign as arguably the game’s best overall prospect after blitzing up the minor-league ladder. He opened at High-A and ended at Triple-A, improving his output all the while. Acuna finished with a cumulative .325/.374/.522 slash over 612 trips to the plate, adding 21 long balls and 44 steals to go with it.
Recent developments have only raised Acuna’s profile further. He mashed his way through the Arizona Fall League and has laid waste to the Grapefruit League this spring, posting a .432/.519/.727 batting line with four home runs and four swiped bags in 52 plate appearances.
There’s not much question that Acuna is ready for the majors. But the Braves are evidently not quite ready for him to join the active roster. That’s hardly a surprise, as the organization has consistently indicated Acuna would open in the minors, but it remains quite notable.
It’s impossible to ignore the service-time factors at play here. So long as Acuna is not allowed to accrue 172 days of service in the coming season, he won’t accrue a full season of MLB service. That would allow the Braves to play him in the majors for most of the upcoming campaign while still controlling him for six full seasons after that point. (Of course, the club might also try to hold him down long enough to prevent future Super Two status, though that would be yet a harder sell.)
Of course, even a delay of a few weeks’ time can have an impact on a team’s won-loss record. But that’s not a particularly pressing concern for this organization. While Atlanta had been looking to 2018 as a season to gear up for contention, a series of events — the poor finish to 2017, stunning front office upheaval, and big salary swapping trade that pushed financial obligations forward — seemingly conspired to change the plans.
In that regard, the considerations are a bit different than in the much-discussed case of then-top-prospect Kris Bryant back in 2015. Bryant, who was also a good deal older than Acuna, started in the minors despite a torrid spring and was held down just long enough for the Cubs to ensure that additional season of control. He played in 151 games after arriving and helped lead the team to a postseason berth.
We’ve never yet seen a situation as eyebrow-raising as Bryant’s and probably never will. But Acuna is certainly in the same general category: a super-premium prospect who has shown everything needed to prove he’s ready — at least from an on-field perspective — to play at the game’s highest level. Instead, the Braves will at least open the year with some kind of platoon in left field, likely featuring some combination of Lane Adams, Charlie Culberson, Danny Santana, Preston Tucker, and/or Ezequiel Carrera.
Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos explained his thought process to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, stating that Acuna’s own developmental needs were the primary concern. Atlanta’s new top baseball decisionmaker also suggested he would not have been as inclined as the prior front office group to move Acuna up so quickly last year.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or how the Major League Baseball Player’s Association addresses today’s decision by the Braves. The union has already felt squeezed on the free-agent side of the service-time spectrum, making it especially notable to see a top young talent handled in a manner seemingly designed (at least in part) to delay his entry onto the open market.
Don’t blame the Braves for this logical decision. Blame MLB for the nonsense rule.
Something definitely needs to be done about that rule. There is really no incentive for teams to not keep top/important prospects down to start the season no matter what they do in ST or how much they prove they are MLB ready. It is the logical and obvious decision. You are always going to take the extra full year of control later over a few weeks now. Starting players like Acuna in the minors is the right choice until something is done about it.
That rule is probably enemy no. 1 when they hit negotiations and I have no reason to believe owners won’t cave and they should. It’s a big concession that they should make.
I agree you should not blame the braves but how exactly are you going to change the rule I think that the system is fine if you want to argue about the number of years of control there should be that’s a fine argument. but I’m not quite sure what the number should be.
Lots of commenters since Bryant’s rookie year have suggested changing the rule, but none of the suggestions I’ve seen could truly be called better. There has to be a service time accumulation rule based on days accumulated because it is possible for players to be called up and sent down at all sorts of odd times in the season. No matter how many days you set it at you will ALWAYS have the possibility of these sorts of situations occur. To me it is a non issue as long as the rules are adhered (in other words if it is legal then it’s permissable).
Spot On southi……..
Only move the Braves could do.
2 weeks < 1 full year
They could’ve started him in the Majors with the understanding he would be sent down mid September to ensure he did not gain the one year service time. He’s seems confident, he’s playing great, imo he makes the team better with him in the line-up. No doubt he would draw additional fans to Sun Trust Park for the opening home stand, thus creating additional revenue for Liberty Media. Imo he increases their chances of wins during their first road trip, Colorado, Washington, Chicago before returning home. Instead they’ll begin his MLB career April 13th, around the time other players are settling in and finding timing and rhythm.
What’s the worst that could happen, the Braves find themselves in a Wild Card chase and need to make a tough decision or young Mr. Acuna gets his feelings hurt while learning a valuable lesson regarding sports and business. I say treat him like a man and he will become a man quicker and better off for it. LET HIM PLAY!
then you open the door to a legit grievance case if he hits all year. Braves could walk into a grievance case and be like “he only has 50 games in AAA” and they’d win. Can’t do that if he hits .320 with 30 bombs through september then option him lol
I admit I don”t have an understanding of MLB grievance cases, but if you’re correct we (Braves Fans) don’t need any more rulings against us, lol.
Basically, you can’t deliberately keep someone in AAA for the purposes of gaining another year of control. Hence why the Cubs said “he needs to work on his defense” when keeping Bryant down for an extra week lol
Yes, because it makes so much more sense to send him down at the end of the year when you could potentially surprise someone and be competitive than it does to just wait 2 weeks and release the hounds. Why didnt we name you GM you genius, you?
Yeah let him play late in the year, when it might be obvious they need him. The only smart thing to do is send him down now. Besides there’s no place to send him in September. Trying to teach him a lesson over something out of his control is completely unnecessary.
Absolutely. The Braves did the right thing for the long term benefit of the organization. Acuna will be in Atlanta and in the Braves lineup no later than April 16 against the Phillies.
Excited to see him when he comes up. Right move by the braves here, no question. Article brings up an interesting conversation about the super two… curious what other people’s thoughts are here?
Every indication suggests that they’re not really caring about the financial cost when it comes to future arbitration, just about the service time aspect of holding him back. I think the cutoff date for the extra year is April 13, although they might wait until the 16th when they’re back in town due to practical decisions regarding travel and middle of the series stuff.
Easiest and best decision to make, and one that many Braves “fans” SOMEHOW fail to understand. And yeah, it’s impossible to ignore the service time factors, because they’re really the ONLY reason why he’s being sent down.
Either way, the entire issue regarding service time needs to be sorted out by MLB and MLBPA, and today’s decision only highlights that.
Also, fans fail to understand players try to get as much money as they can when its time. It’s OK when ownership treats it like a business, but frowned upon when players do the same.
Sadly, that’s way too true. Everyone applauds the owner/front office when they decide to slash the payroll next to nothing and be one of the worst teams for 3-5 years. And yet, when it’s time for a player to finally get paid, you see nothing but “OVERRATED, HE SHOULD BE HAPPY TO GET A QUARTER OF THAT”
I can’t speak for everyone, but I have no problem with a player doing what they can to make maximum dollars. If that’s their goal, fine, do it. But it’s the ones who talk about wanting to stay w/ one team, etc – or the ones who think they should be paid $400-500m when they’re not even worth a fraction of that, statistically (Harper).
You don’t think Harper is worth that on the open market?
IHarper might get $450 Mil…..but he’s not truly “worth that”.
That kind of salary is only attainable because everyone is grading salaries on a curve.
“He’s one of the best players so he should be one of the highest paid players”…… although his value is truly cemented in his potential because his stats so far in his career don’t merit anywhere near that kind of paycheck.
If they ever decided to use the actual definition of the word “Worth”…… half the league would have to take a pay cut.
I would love for a player to take a draw against commission salary like a salesman. Take a base salary with a boatload of incentives. Plusses and minuses against the league average. I don’t care what team, even the Phillies, he played for that would be my new favorite player. A contract like that would completely change the game and make agents like Boras obsolete.
Small price to pay to keep him through 2024. People generally think he’s going to leave regardless of whether they kept him up for two weeks anyway.
Super 2… no big deal and a logical decision with the current rules.
Let’s see what Tucker can do.
Pushing that clock back. He’ll be up by May
Even before then, almost certainly mid-April.
By April 13th
Braves are on the road April 13 … my guess is they’ll wait until they’re home on April 16 against the Phillies and end scoring an early season home sellout.
Or let him get his first taste of real MLB ball with a little less pressure away from home so he doesn’t start to press right away trying to get his first hit or HR at home.
Would be nice, I’ll be at the game on the 18th.
The move is the correct move. However i wish they kept Colon instead of Ruiz. The guy is terrible and is just on the list of garbage Coppy acquired. Seriously, Coppy’s demise is a blessing in disguise for the Braves. Almost all his trades have been terrible.
Not even close to all of his trades. Gattis for folty was a good move. Miller for ender, Swanson was a good move, he also traded Victor Reyes for a draft pick which turned into AJ Minter. He had a lot of issues, but you have to give him credit for building the farm system.
You do realize he left the Braves with arguably the best farm system of all of baseball, and that’s AFTER having 13 international signings taken away, right?
and you don’t think a different GM would not have done the same thing? He just sat their with his people and chose the best players available in the draft. He did the least work among his co workers. Also the only reason the Braves are number 1 is because of Acuna. If not for Wren, the farm would be rated in the mid top 10.
Regardless, this does not excuse his terrible trades throughout the years.
He traded his best players (Simmons, Wood, Upton, Kimbrel) for players that are still competing to see if they will be part of the future.
He also got out of bad contracts for a small market team.
How is Atlanta a small market team? They are in the top of MLB in TV market size!
That ought to make the MLBPA heads spin!!
They knew long ago this was coming.
That they did, and I think they were hoping for it, since he’s having a great camp, they can file their grievance and maybe it sticks…Someday it will.
Indeed. If MLB GMs have decided 30+ players are useless, this little trick does a lot more harm to the player than it used to. Imagine a slightly older player who would be due to be a FA at 29, and is delayed to 30 by this trickery? That would cost him millions in today’s climate.
First day on the roster should be year one period. Put an end to all the ridiculous holding down of talented players.
then you won’t see any mlb debuts after May lol. You’d be punishing players by keeping them in the minors too long.
and what about players that come up and are not ready and need to be sent down. I agree there’s problems with the current system but I can’t seem to find a better way maybe you’re just cut the team control time by one year?
You just got Bryanted!!!
Of course they assigned him to the minors, everyone saw this from miles away…
it makes no business sense to put him in the majors right now. Braves doing the right thing.
Did I miss it? I haven’t seen any of the Giants recent reassignments reported on MLBTR??
I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited for a prospect that wasn’t in my teams farm. Anyone think hes still the favourite for NL rookie of the year?
2 weeks won’t matter for ROY. He’s gotta be the favorite for NL ROY, unless I’m forgetting someone obvious.
There’s a few highly touted rookies in the NL. He’s probably the favorite. Then again, so was Swanson last year.
In the next CBA, they should just keep the current service time rules, but reduce the # of years before FA. If you play the system for a player, thats fine, but you only get him for the first 5 years instead of 7. That way someone debuting at age 24 isn’t controlled until 30, they’d hit FA at 28
Agreed. Maybe just eliminate arb, and go with 3 years.
eh, if you go that short, you’d need to probably cap spending or something. Can’t have the Pirates and Royals producing stars just to have the Yankees/RedSox/Dodgers signing them once they turn 25
This would be great for the players, but I can’t see ownership giving up such a huge concession. Owners are kind of in the driver seat right now (a lot can change in 3+ years, admittedly), and giving up 2 years of cheap control would almost assuredly be a non-starter
Am expecting a PED suspension some day. Remarkably quick improvement in such a short time for someone so young.
What an ignorant comment
In my opinion the whole top 100 prospect list should be suspended
and how would that work? like NFL and NBA draft lists, there are literally dozens of these lists
Anyone on any of the posts gets suspended. They all must be cheating
Ugh, Goat. hush. lol These prospect list are the only thing giving braves fans hope ATM. lol
I think Longoria was the first big name prospect to get his FA delayed by this trickery. The guys on TB were saying at the end of camp that he was not only good enough to be the starting 3B, but would be the best player on the team right then. Bryant was a copycat move that came later, but was equally egregious. The MLBPA has grumbled, but not acted, because the fiction of “he needs more time” is tough to disprove & it didn’t seem to be quite a big enough deal to fight it out. However, now that teams have all adopted the attitude that 30+ year-olds are unworthy of large or long contracts, fighting this out makes sense. It doesn’t harm Acuna as much as someone for whom a 7th year of control would push their FA to his age 30 season (that guy might lose millions through this maneuver), but it will ding him at least a little.
We can’t expect any changes before the next CBA, but longer term, service time manipulation is going to have to be dealt with. I don’t know if it’s possible to have an objective standard of when to bring someone up, but you can have a hard cap on age–free agency no later than your playing year 29 (unless you sign an extension). Players are now getting squeezed on both ends–early in their careers where they are subject to this issue, and low MLB minimums. and the newly emerging resistance to signing older free agents even if they would make your team better. Something needs to give. MLB is awash in money. The fact that the union bargained badly this last CBA is on them, but it could be seen as a surprise that the market just collapsed for most Free Agents.
Need someone to come up with a line for Acuna-Matada for this one…
This isn’t as egregious as Bryant. Acuna has had one spectacular season in the minors, and really not that many AB’s above A ball. There is a baseball arguement (admittedly, not a great one) for starting him at AAA and telling him to force his way onto the major league roster.
Bryant had absolutely nothing to prove.
Tony Clark yawns
It’s official. The braves more highly of Ezequial Carrera than Acuna
I mean speaking theoretically,
the Braves could argue that Preston Tucker was great in camp, and Acuna wasn’t on the 40-man roster, thus disincentivizing them to call him up, as they have no openings.
The braves should have rolled the dice by putting him on the active 25 roster. He will have three option years to address service time. He can be sent down any time. Another bad decision.
That’s not how it works. Why would they option him for 30 ish days down the line when they’ll hopefully be competing? You gain the extra year of control early
Wrong again. Not ready to compete and if they are, why worry about a couple bucks. You have been brain washed, the objective is to win and to entertain. Can’t do that at AAA.
Shocking. I feel like super 2 players like Bryant, Acuna, and Longoria in the past shouldn’t be able to have the QO placed on them. Don’t restrict their FA market for more than 7 seasons after already squeezing in another year of control.
I love it when people argue that teams should trade a full season in the players’ prime for two weeks at the beginning of their career.
They’d rather have a dozen (or so) extra games in a guy’s rookie year than (what they hope will be) a superstar’s age 27 (or so) season. For some reason.
Well, there are two wild card teams now and a win here or there could actually matter. Acuna was having a ridiculous spring; he needs no more “seasoning” in the minors except to save a few bucks for the Braves. I just hate how obvious this is.
The Braves can make this decision (and they should when it is to their advantage) because it is within the current rules, just as steroids were not banned by MLB at one time and players used that to their advantage. Almost everyone will use rules to their advantage when given the opportunity. When enough people see the light and deem a rule unfair or detrimental, that tipping point is reached and finally a change is set in motion. In the case of this rule, it’s about time.
As a Cubs fan, it was disappointing when Kris Bryant was sent down and evidently ready. Same goes for Acuna in this situation. This collective bargaining agreement is showing just how manipulative the system can be against young players.
Its hard to fault Atlanta but it puts a bad look on baseball when its best players aren’t playing. It’s frankly quite disappointing.
Tony Clark and the MLBPA fought for executive chefs in every clubhouse and for empty seats next to the players on team buses in spring training so that players wouldn’t have to endure the burden of sitting next to another human being for an hour or two.
They didn’t fight to end service time manipulation.
The Braves are acting rationally based on the system negotiated by Tony Clark on behalf of the players.
Keep in mind that Willie Mays began the 1951 season in the minors after showing brilliant potential in the lower minors. Hit hit 477 for Minneapolis in 35 games at AAA and was brought up to the Giants in late May—–where he sucked for the first week with one hit in seven games. But he caught fire and was hitting 300 by the end of June. He cooled off a bit but still won rookie of the year and of course, the rest is history. Acuna will not suffer spending a few weeks in the minors and the Braves get an extra year of salary relief. However, if Acuna is as good as he shows…..he will be a very rich man.