I’ll warn you up front, this is not going to be the happiest “Last Week In Baseball.” Far from it. If you’ve paid attention to the sport over the last 48 hours, you’ll know exactly why. Let’s rip that band-aid off together, shall we?
Ronald Acuña Jr. Tears ACL, Season Over
In horrific news for the Atlanta Braves and all of baseball, Ronald Acuña Jr. is done for the season. The reigning MVP suffered a complete tear of his left ACL on Sunday against the Pirates. From the moment it happened, it immediately seemed bad – while trying to fake a steal of third, his leg twisted and buckled underneath him. Non-contact injuries are always incredibly scary, especially when a player goes down that hard.
Acuña is one of baseball’s most electric players and is coming off a season so historic he made his own club. Three times. He’s now the only player to post a 40 homer, 50 steal season, a 40-60 season, and a 40-70 season, after mashing for a 170 wRC+ last year with 41 long balls and 73 stolen bases. One of the things I think everyone forgets to talk about too is his strikeout rate. He’s typically stayed in the mid-20s for his career, but he cut that IN HALF in his MVP campaign, only getting sent back to the dugout 11.4% of the time.
The Braves will now have to try to make do without their superstar outfielder, though they have experience on this front. Acuña tore his right ACL in 2021, making this his second major knee surgery. They’ll certainly scout around for options to replace him in the short term. It wasn’t like he was lighting the world on fire again this year (.250/.351/.365/110 wRC+), but he’s still one of those destination players that brings people out to the ballpark. Baseball is worse without him, and unfortunately, that’s the reality we’ll live in this year.
The Cardinals Take Flight
A lot of experts were understandably down on the St. Louis Cardinals this year. They entered 2024 coming off of their worst season in a loooooooong time, let alone their only losing season in over a decade. There are certainly reasons for it – an abysmal starting pitching staff (5.08 ERA) and rough defense sunk an otherwise solid, albeit not spectacular, offense (104 wRC+). The Redbirds addressed the crux of their issue, adding Sonny Gray, Kyle Gibson, and Lance Lynn to the fold (along with some solid relief help from Andrew Kittridge), though it was hardly the transformative offseason hoped for.
Sure enough, things looked grim earlier this month when St. Louis dropped seven in a row, including to the White Sox and Mets, and fell to a season-worst 15-24. That’s a deep hole, even for this early in the season, and you’d be forgiven for writing this team off, especially after their best hitter, Willson Contreras, suffered an arm fracture that will have him on the shelf for a while yet. And yet, here we are. Last week, the Cardinals did not lose a game (ok, except against Boston on Sunday), delivering the Baltimore Orioles their first sweep in over 100 series and knocking out the Cubs with two heartbreakers in a row with the tying run on third (the Cubs, on the other hand, are on the exact opposite trajectory of the Cardinals right now).
The Cardinals now sit at 25-27. That’s still not good enough for a playoff spot or anything, but it lands them right back in the thick of the race nonetheless. Since that losing streak, they’ve won 10 of 13 and have done so against mostly good teams. The remedy appears to be an offense that’s heating up thanks to the efforts of Alec Burleson (145 wRC+ in May), Lars Nootbaar (151 wRC+), and Nolan Gorman (159 wRC+), and a pitching staff that’s been better, albeit not great, thanks to that aforementioned trio of free-agent additions. Gray, in particular, has been one of the best pitchers in baseball with a 2.60 ERA and 2.80 FIP.
If the Cardinals continue rolling like this, they’ll not only surpass the Cubs but be a direct threat to the division-leading Brewers. There are still holes and questions to be addressed with this team, but things are going well right now and they have a chance to capitalize on this momentum.
The Race for Roki Sasaki Heats Up
Last year saw the arrival of some big-time overseas stars, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga from Japan, and Jung Hoo Lee from Korea. This upcoming offseason, however, will bring one of the most electric young arms from Japan to MLB – Roki Sasaki. And every team is hoping to land him.
It should be noted that neither Sasaki nor his team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, have confirmed that he’ll be posted this offseason, but a recent report revealed that MLB teams are planning for that outcome. Sasaki will be a player that every team should be in on given the circumstances. Unlike Yamamoto or Imanaga, the 22-year-old phenom is forced to sign a rookie contract with a signing bonus from a team’s international bonus pool money since he qualifies as an international amateur. The rub, however, is that the Lotte Marines would have to agree to post him. It’s a complicated situation involving a potential unknown clause in Sasaki’s contract or just a bucking of traditional wisdom, which is best explained in a video from the Yakyu Cosmopolitan.
Sasaki is a fast-rising star in Japan, posting a 2.03 ERA through his first four years with the Marines. Boasting a triple-digit fastball that set a record for a Japanese high school pitcher, he’s already made quite the mark overseas, tossing one of the best games in baseball history – a perfect game with 19 strikeouts – let alone NPB history. He also played a vital role in Japan’s victory in the World Baseball Classic last year, earning comparisons to a young Stephen Strasburg.
There are some warts to “The Monster of the Reiwa Era,” though. For as impressive as his stuff has looked, durability is still in question. His career high in innings is only 129 1/3, which is low for an NPB pitcher, let alone an MLB starter. Moreover, he’s coming off an oblique tear that ended his 2023 season. That doesn’t seem to have affected him, as he’s pitching to an excellent 2.18 ERA this year, but it’s still worth noting.
While any team could sign him… c’mon. He’s a Los Angeles Dodger. GMs from around the league have said he wants to be a Dodger. The Dodgers have indicated they want him. After landing both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto last winter, L.A. has become the MLB team to watch in Japan and they could solidify that core for a decade+ by adding Sasaki. Unless something drastically changes, they will be adding another Japanese superstar to their embarrassment of riches next year. If he isn’t posted, they’ll just add him whenever he is. End of discussion.
The Automated Ball-Strike Zone Still Needs Work
For anyone hoping that the Automated Ball-Strike Zone will reach the majors next year, don’t hold your breath. During the owners’ meetings last week, Rob Manfred gave updates on several issues, including the sites for the World Baseball Classic, the abhorrent state of MLB jerseys, and the television rights situation with Diamond Sports. Regarding the ABS, however, he said that there are still issues to work out and decisions to be made regarding how it will be implemented.
“We still have some technical issues,” the commissioner said on Thursday. “We haven’t made as much progress in the minor leagues this year as we sort of hoped at this point. I think it’s becoming more and more likely that this will not be a go for ’25.” When it does finally arrive, it seems robo umps will work through a challenge system rather than as a replacement for umpires. That’s probably for the best as it means framing will still be a valuable skill while still preventing egregiously bad strike zones from ruining a game. Players have overwhelmingly preferred that outcome as well.
Manfred also noted that the league still needs to have discussions with the players over what shape the ABS will take when determining what a strike is. The rulebook defines the strike zone as a cube over the plate, but the ABS currently determines the call based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate. The hope, then, is that all of this can now be worked out by 2026.
Weekly Weird
This is less of a “Weekly Weird” this week and more of a pick-me-up from the bummer news that the baseball world got on Sunday.
Bryce Harper is an awesome dude and he’s done a lot of awesome things for fans. He once literally took one of his shoes off at the airport, signed it, and gave it to a fan he ran into when they couldn’t find a good Sharpie to sign their cap with. Last week, however, he played wingman for high schooler Jake Portella for his promposal. As a big surprise to his would-be date, who is a huge Phillies fan, he managed to recruit Harper to help out for the occasion. Only, instead of making a video or something of the sort, the slugger offered to come to her front door with Portella. It’s an incredibly sweet gesture that I highly recommend reading the full story about.
Bunting For Power 