Saturday, June 28

ATLANTA  --  Ronald Acuña Jr.’s bid to be in the starting lineup for next month’s All-Star Game in Atlanta improved on Thursday, when he was one of the six National League outfielders who advanced to Phase 2 of the balloting process.

Acuña finished third among NL outfielders in Phase 1 of the balloting process, finishing behind the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernández. The other three outfielders to advance were the Cubs’ Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ Andy Pages and the Mets’ Juan Soto.

• 2025 PRO SPIRIT MLB All-Star Ballot. Watch the All-Star Game presented by Mastercard July 15 on FOX

Vote totals will not carry over to the next phase. The top three vote-getters among these six players will be elected to serve as the NL’s starting outfielders.

Acuña is bidding to join Hank Aaron and Dale Murphy as the only Braves to be elected to start an All-Star Game five times. The current Braves outfielder was in the NL’s starting lineup in 2019, '22 and '23. He was elected to start in '21, but he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament three days before the game.

Voting for the second phase will run from noon ET on Monday until noon ET on Wednesday, July 2.

The All-Star Ballot will continue to be available exclusively online and via mobile devices at MLB.com/vote, all 30 club websites, the MLB App and the MLB Ballpark App. Fans may vote once per day during Phase 2, with the daily voting limit resetting each day at midnight.

Winners will be announced on Wednesday live on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.

Acuña missed this season’s first 49 games while completing his recovery from the knee injury that cost him the final four months of the 2024 campaign.  But he has spent the past month proving he remains one of the game’s elite players, even with two surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligaments.

Before he went 0-for-4 in Thursday night's loss to the Mets, here is where Acuña ranked among all MLB players going back to his May 23 season debut:

Average: (2nd) .383, trailing only Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich (.387)
OBP: (1st) .500
SLG: (3rd) .682, trailing Seattle’s Cal Raleigh (.781) and Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz (.699)

OPS: (1st) 1.182

Home runs: (T-11th) 9

So, Acuña was leading all NL outfielders in OBP, SLG and OPS since making his return to the top of the Braves’ lineup. He was just a few points behind Yelich in the batting average category. The only NL outfielders to hit more homers than him over the past month have been the Mets’ Juan Soto (11) and the Nationals’ James Wood (10).

Acuña’s total might be higher if, like Soto, he would have had the opportunity to bat against 20-year-old Didier Fuentes and since-demoted Austin Cox on Wednesday night.

But Acuña is playing as well as anybody could have expected. He exited Wednesday having constructed a 1.182 OPS through his first 30 games of the season. 

Here is how that number ranked against his other OPS marks through the first 30 games of a season:

2018: .759

2019: .879

2020: 1.081

2021: 1.083

2022: .934

2023: 1.035

2024: .719

2025: 1.182

Acuña has already committed to participating in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on July 14.  He should create some energy that night. And the next night, he would certainly feel some energy if he is announced as part of the NL’s starting lineup. 

Aaron was the only Brave who was in the starting lineup when the All-Star Game was first played in Atlanta in 1972. Chipper Jones and Andres Galarraga were the only Braves in the NL’s lineup when the game returned to Atlanta in 2000.

Acuña seems destined to join Aaron and Jones as the most iconic players, at least in terms of position players, to ever wear a Braves uniform. So, it would certainly be fitting for him to also experience being in the lineup for an All-Star Game in what is now his town.

Which Hall of Famer served up Aaron’s home run in the 1972 All-Star Game?

A. Gaylord Perry

B. Jim Palmer

C. Fergie Jenkins

D. Nolan Ryan

The pregame consensus in the press box was that Fuentes would likely last somewhere into the third inning of Wednesday night’s game against the Mets. So, he actually exceeded some expectations when he allowed six earned runs over 3 1/3 innings.  How bad was his fourth inning?  The balls were coming off the bats so hard, it was hard to hear the planes landing across the way at La Guardia. 

Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves' No. 10 prospect, Fuentes has a lot of potential. The kid has struck out more than one per inning at each of his three Minor League stops his year. But he’s probably a Double-A level pitcher right now.  He posted a 5.54 ERA in three starts at the High-A level, a 4.98 ERA in five starts at Double-A and then allowed one run over 4 2/3 innings in his only Triple-A appearance before getting the unexpected call to the Majors.  

Still, Braves manager Brian Snitker said he expects Fuentes to make another start during next week’s series against the Angels. This plan could be altered. But the fact it’s even an option further highlights how thin the starting pitching depth became once Ian Anderson faded and Reynaldo López and AJ Smith-Shawver were injured. 

A. Gaylord Perry 

Aaron hit a go-ahead, two-out, two-run home run off Perry in the sixth inning.

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