Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuńa Jr ready to return to the lineup, but to where?

Braves ready to call up Acuńa Jr? If so, where will he bat in the lineup?

The Atlanta Braves are 6-4 in their past 10 games, 11-9 in the month of June and 14-10 since we lost Ronald Acuńa Jr to an injury.

The Braves aren’t struggling that bad, we lost a couple games that we should have won, but not too bad.

I relate this kinda to my softball team.  We lost on of our best hitters and our offense struggled without him.  We were okay, but we weren’t the same team.  Once that guy returned, our team exploded!  Hoping the Braves will do the same with the return of Acuńa !

Acuńa Jr was placed on the disabled list on May 28th with a mild ACL sprain in left knee and a back contusion after an extremely scary play at first base.  His left knee literally went the wrong way.  Many thought this was a season ending injury, but that doesn’t sound like the case.  He’s on his way back, folks!

The 20-year-old has played in four rehab games for the Gwinnett Stripers and is 2-13 at the plate with an RBI and a stolen base.

Atlanta has said they’re going to take it slow with his return to the bigs and has said as recently as earlier Monday that it will probably be later this week.  BUT, looking at the Stripers’ box score, Acuńa Jr was not in the Triple-A lineup during their second game of Monday’s doubleheader.

The other thing about this is, he’s not even listed on the Stripers bench.  Strange right?  Is this a good thing?  Is this a bad thing?  Is he on his way to Atlanta?  Did he re-injure himself?  All this is TBD, but we’ll update you if we get additional information.

Braves manager Brian Snitker told the media on Monday that Acuña Jr. will accompany Triple-A Gwinnett on its road trip to Norfolk and will continue his rehab assignment.

It’s believed Acuńa won’t be activated to Atlanta until Friday.  The Braves have an off-day on Thursday.

Where will he be in the Braves lineup?

So when he does return, where will Brian Snitker place him in the lineup?  Some may laugh at that question because who the hell knows what Snit will do.  But I think I’ve got the answer.

With Ender Inciarte hitting better recently — OBP of .396 with 11 runs scored, eight RBI’s, one homer and two stolen bases in the past 14 days — and Ozzie Albies continuing to prove he’s worthy of a top spot in the lineup, it doesn’t look like Acuńa Jr will be ahead of Freddie Freeman.

Snit said Monday afternoon, he will likely bat somewhere in the middle of the lineup when he returns from the disabled list.

Freddie isn’t moving from the three hole and why move Nick Markakis from the cleanup spot when he’s having a career year.

Snitker absolutely loves batting his catcher in the five spot.  I don’t think he changes his mind here for the time being.

With the comments from the Braves manager and how these guys are currently hitting, I think the Braves lineup will go like this…

Next: Atlanta Braves and starting pitching candidates

1. Ender
2. Ozzie
3. Freddie
4. Markakis
5. Flower/Suzuki
6. Acuńa Jr
7. Camargo
8. Swanson
9. Pitcher