Ronald Acuña Jr: 'It's no secret that I want to be a Brave for life.'

The Atlanta Braves have had one of the best players of this generation on their roster for the last few years.

And if he had it his way, he'd be here for more than just the next few years, too.

Reigning National League Most Valuable Player Ronald Acuña Jr reported to spring training today, ahead of Monday's mandatory reporting deadline for position players, and mentioned his desire to play for the franchise for his entire career.

"It's not a secret that I want to be a Brave for life. It's my hope that we can make that happen soon."

Acuña, who was signed as an international free agent by the team in 2014, made his major league debut in 2018 at the age of 20. He signed a contract extension the very next year, in April, committing for eight years and $100M. If Atlanta exercises the two club options, which is a virtual certainty given their $17M price tags, he'll make a total of $124M over ten years and reach free agency for his age 31 season, in 2029.

There's not a lot of precedent for signing a player to an extension that's two to four years away from their contract expiring, but there's not a lot of precedent for what Ronald Acuña Jr. has done on the baseball field, either.

MVP checking in 🔥@ronaldacunajr24 | #BravesST pic.twitter.com/6OXXon6yCl
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) February 16, 2024

The slugger put up MLB's fifth ever 40-40 season in dominant fashion last year, finishing with 41 homers and an absurd 73 steals en route to an unanimous MVP victory over Los Angeles Dodgers rightfielder and second baseman Mookie Betts.

It's the second season for Ronald with 40 or more homers and 35 or more steals, with him also accomplishing the feat in 2019 under different, more stringent baserunning rules.

It was also a massive, mid-career improvement in plate discipline for Acuña, who lowered his strikeout rate from 23.6% to only 11.4%, fueling a career-high .337/.416/.596 slashline with only 84 strikeouts, his lowest in a full season.

And with the escalating cost of MVP contracts - Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees parlayed his 2022 AL MVP into a nine year, $360M pact worth $40M per season, two-time AL MVP Shohei Ohtani just signed for ten years and an (deferral-adjusted) $46M per year, and Bryce Harper signed for 13 years and $330M with the Philadelphia Phillies - it makes sense for Ronald to look for an extension that would push his pay closer into the range of what the market would pay.

But an extension right now would be tough, from multiple perspectives. With Atlanta having so many players locked up long-term, it'd be difficult to set the precedent of renegotiating a deal a little over halfway through. Additionally, all of those contracts max out at $22M per year, with no Braves player ever exceeding that over the life of their deals.

So even if Ronald does get a new deal, which we don't know how likely that is, it's unlikely that he gets a significant pay increase unless Atlanta goes outside of type with either the length or salary of the deal.

Don't expect other big ticket moves by the Atlanta Braves this offseason

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