NORTH PORT, Fla. — Braves superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. posted an improbably great season in 2023 when he accomplished something so far out there no one even dreamed it. But if the 40-70 homer-steal combo seemed absurd, Acuna makes the impossible seem possible. Like his talent, his goals know no limits.
“I’m trying to be better than last year,” Acuna told The Post on Friday morning, referring to the season in which he hit 41 homers, stole 73 bases and won unanimity in the MVP race against the great Mookie Betts. So how about 50-80?
“I don’t know, but everything is possible,” Acuna said. “When I play, I don’t think (about it) too much. And when the season’s over, I’ll see what I did.”
Everyone’s in a good mood here in Braves camp, and not just because the team is stacked yet again. They already experienced the highlight of the spring and the relief of a lifetime.
Acuna recently returned from Los Angeles, where the best position player in the National League visited with the best sports surgeon in North America, and Dr. Neal ElAttrache sent Acuna back with the most favorable diagnosis possible — confirmation he’s only suffering from an “irritation” in the meniscus in his right knee.
Which is actually something of a coincidence since that’s a reasonable 2024 goal for their NL East rival Mets — to become an irritant to the juggernaut Braves. While Mets people, notably including baseball president David Stearns, have opined their team is “playoff caliber,” nobody on the team from Queens dare says anything about a division title — not when the Braves have won it six straight times and look better than ever. Nobody could come close to that sort of crazy talk besides the Phillies, who knocked the Braves out of the postseason two straight years in mild upsets, two exits they won’t soon forget here.
“The postseason history is there,” star third baseman Austin Riley noted. “Hopefully, we get to see them again in the postseason.”
Meantime, anything is possible for this Braves team, which looks stacked again. Unless one obsesses over the fifth starter — it likely will be either be Reynaldo Lopez or Bryce Elder — the only serious issue was Acuna’s health, and ElAttrache gave the Braves the assurance they needed.
“I’m feeling great. I’m feeling like nothing happened,” Acuna said.
No matter, the Braves will use caution before starting up their franchise man because somebody has to. He’s on track for Opening Day, they say, but for now he waits.
“They will tell me when I can play,” Acuna, who suffered the injury in a rundown, said. “I play hard, no matter what happens. Every day, I play hard. It’s what I do.”
Beloved, avuncular manager Brian Snitker says there’s no sense imploring in-game wariness.
It’s not happening, anyway. “He doesn’t know caution on a baseball field,” Snitker said. “And why would he, with that kind of ability and love for the game?”
Snitker lets them all play, and if they play 162, he’ll be happy (though Snitker points out only one did play all 162 last year, first base star Matt Olson). “We’re going to try, God willing,” Snitker said.
The attendance was nice, the performance extraordinary. Acuna is the main man here, but it’s a team of stars despite almost never playing for the biggest free agents (they took a hard look at Aaron Nola of the rival Phillies, but he surprised no one by returning to his team). Rather, they rely on scouting, developing and especially retaining home-grown or just-acquired players.
They do have the golden touch. Whoever comes here seems to regain their form. Some even resurrect their careers.
The latest is Chris Sale, who’s been “awesome,” (Snitker’s word) in 4 ²/₃ scoreless innings with nine strikeouts in spring. Word is, he wouldn’t have waived his no-trade for many, if any, other teams.
The Red Sox saw Sale as a regrettable, $145M contract. Here he looks like a needed Game 3 starter at a fair price (they reworked the deal, guaranteeing an extra $10.5M and year while removing deferrals).
If Acuna is the biggest star, the off-field genius is general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who one Brave called a “baseball savant.” It’s true, no one compares at what he does, which is locking up stars with contracts that work for the team, which incidentally is a cash cow (public records show they print money).
Anthopoulos, a Montreal native who started his career in the Expos public relations office, characteristically claims no particular genius (he’s wrong there, by the way). My guess is this: The trick was giving them all small victories. All were done early and most set some type of obscure contract record for the player, but not one is regrettable yet.
Anyway, the team looks like it has a chance to repeat its impossible streak of winning 14 straight division titles in the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz era. It won’t be easy, of course. The Phillies are loaded, too, and since Mets owner Steve Cohen is himself loaded, the assumption is that his team will be ready to unseat the Braves at some point. But for now, we’ll just have to sit back and admire their obvious greatness.