Ronald Acuña Jr. Is Toying With the Marlins

As baseball re-adjusts to the typical rigors of a 162-game marathon, the enormity of the season looms large. The rush of new beginnings has already subsided after cresting atop pomp, circumstance, and red, white, and blue bunting. Seven months of this stuff can take a toll on the mind, because even though the gatekeepers of fun want the players to act more robotic, they’re still hopelessly human.

To break up the monotony – to prevent the edges from blurring together – life needs texture. The smoothness of everyday things, people, and feelings must be offset by secondary and tertiary characters, those who remind us what it’s like to experience things in technicolor rather than dull gray. For most of us, it’s the fun extended family member who you only see every so often, or the friend of a friend who’s always good for a chuckle.

For Ronald Acuña Jr., it’s games against the Miami Marlins.

The Marlins occupy an interesting development arc when contrasted with Acuña’s ascendant career. While the Braves’ outfielder has been excellent since the moment he arrived in Atlanta, the Marlins spent the first few years of Acuña’s rise with hooks in their lips. In 2018, despite still clinging to J.T. Realmuto, Starlin Castro, and several other capable players, Miami finished 63-98, owners of the worst record in the National League. As the Marlins labored through the pollution of that campaign, Acuña’s Braves were on their way to their first division title in five years. The next year, Realmuto was gone, and so were the faintest hopes that the Marlins could escape the NL East’s all-encompassing net. The 2019 Marlins sank to 57-105, again the worst record in the senior circuit, while each of the other teams in their division won at least half of their games. One of those teams won the World Series that year. And while the Braves lost out in the Division Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, they took the division with 97 wins, with their 21-year-old wunderkind posting 5.6 WAR and falling just a few steals shy of a 40-40 season.

Acuña’s line first got tangled with Don Mattingly’s bunch in his 2018 rookie season. In his first 11 games versus the Fish, he had a 114 wRC+ and two home runs. Then, in the team’s mid-August series, he found another gear. On August 15, Acuña took his turn at bat to lead off the bottom of the first inning of the final game of a four-game set. Atlanta had won the first three games of the series quite handily, outscoring their Floridian foes 25-8, while Acuña went 8-for-13 with four home runs and nine RBI. Not only that, the man led off each game with a homer. That trio of games had been a bit of a coming out party for the vivacious Venezuelan. The day before, he followed his leadoff shot with another in the seventh for his first two-homer game in the majors, lifting the Braves 16 games above .500.

The Marlins, for some reason, were big mad.

Before most fans could even settle into their seats, Acuña got senselessly drilled by José Ureña’s first pitch, a 97-mph fastball with the settings turned to violent. After the game, Freddie Freeman called Ureña “completely classless.” Brian Snitker, immediately incensed, said that he wasn’t sure he’d “ever felt like that in a baseball uniform.” MLB deemed Ureña’s actions to be intentional, slapped a fine on him, and suspended him for six games. Meanwhile, Acuña got an X-ray on his elbow, found nothing troublesome, and lay in wait for the next time he crossed paths with the Marlins. That ended up being just eight days later, and Acuña responded as though he’d been storing up spiteful strength in the intervening days.

That colossal middle finger of a home run certainly sent a message to Miami, the Marlins franchise, and trophy fish everywhere. But it couldn’t have felt as satisfying as a long ball off Ureña would have. Fast forward to June 2019, and Acuña finally enjoyed that delicious flavor for the first time. I bet vengeful bat flips taste sweet and savory, like the perfect peanut butter and jelly.

The tired trope of the big swaggering kid picking on the shrimpy nerd got a bit of a re-write in 2020. The Marlins went from consecutive last-place finishers to surprise postseason crasher. But after upsetting the Cubs in the Wild Card Series, guess who was waiting for them in the NLDS, still wreaking havoc from the leadoff spot?

Atlanta speared the Marlins in three games to advance to the NLCS, and even though Ureña is no longer with Miami, Acuña wasted no time picking on his favorite organization when 2021 rolled around. He posted a triple, three walks, and two runs in the clubs’ first meeting, while still finding time for a bit of banter with Jazz Chisholm. Even foes can appreciate good hair, after all:

"Let me see your hair."

The full @ronaldacunajr24 and @j_chisholm3 moment was even better. pic.twitter.com/eD4y53TFPX

— Bally Sports: Braves (@BravesOnBally) April 13, 2021

He came back with a single, a walk, and two more runs in the series’ second game. That would pale in comparison to his outburst on Wednesday night, however, when a pair of two-run dingers further twisted his cleat on Miami’s neck.

Thursday’s matinee brought yet another chain-jingling home run trot, the 20th he’s completed against the Marlins. That’s the thing with the Braves phenom. He’ll yuk it up with you on a Tuesday and rip your heart out by Thursday. Acuña now flexes a comical 192 wRC+ in 48 games against Miami, with a .328/.426/.709 line, a .465 wOBA, and those aforementioned 20 home runs.

Though the Braves have largely struggled in the season’s early going, Acuña sparks hope by simply showing up to the ballpark every day. He leads the National League in every major offensive category. He’s one of only two NL hitters to have already surpassed 1.0 WAR on the season (Justin Turner is the other). He looks miraculous in the Braves’ alternate throwback jerseys. But perhaps most importantly, he’s still finding time to clown on the Marlins, a team that gives his life joyous texture for all the world to see. As Chisholm knows, sometimes all you can do is tip your cap.