NORTH PORT, Florida — The man whose absence defined his team’s 2024 has been delightfully unavoidable so far in spring training.
Ronald Acuña Jr., the Atlanta Braves’ franchise man, a power-speed dynamo of the highest order, had his season derailed last year by a torn ACL on May 27. That injury, his second ACL tear in a four-year span on two different legs, sent him to the surgeon's table and the Braves a’reeling. His unavailability — coupled with a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of other injuries that, most notably, included an elbow surgery to flame-throwing ace Spencer Strider — stymied Atlanta’s quest for a seventh straight NL East crown.