When the regular season began for the Atlanta Braves many pointed to this weekend’s series in Chicago as the likely debut for top prospect Ronald Acuña Jr. If not in Chicago, many thought his debut would come when the Braves opened a home stand on April 16 against Philadelphia. Both of those scenarios would ensure that he would not garner a full season of service time and thus extend team control for one full season.
However, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports that there is little reason to expect Acuña to get the call before Monday’s game against Philadelphia and there is no guarantee it will happen during the home stand.
Acuña has gotten off to a slow start in Triple-A and Bowman writes that Atlanta will be patient. A hot streak this week could prompt a promotion but there are no current plans in place.
If Acuna were to get hot over the next few days, there is a chance the Braves could bring him to the Majors before this next homestand ends on Sunday. But there are no current plans regarding the young outfielder, who has gone 3-for-18 with seven strikeouts since recording his only multi-hit game of the year, on Tuesday.
That is certainly not going to make a lot of fans happy especially given the spring training that Acuña had and the anticipation for his arrival. However, it is important to remember that as an organization, they made no announcements as to when they might bring Acuña to the majors. The dates for this weekend were floated around by fans and the media simply because of the service time requirements.
So the wait goes on, but it likely won’t be for too much longer.