Atlanta Braves: Does Ronald Acuna Jr. have a chance to sneak into NL MVP race?

For most of this season, the NL MVP race has been a two-person battle, but Atlanta Braves phenom Ronald Acuna Jr. is making a late surge.

Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich got off to unbelievable stars in 2019 and have really just continued to excel. But a couple of Atlanta Braves players could enter their name into the competition.

Ronald Acuna Jr. has really taken off after the All-Start break, not that he was exactly struggling before.

He’s now pacing to be the first 30-30 player for the Atlanta Braves in 28 years. And 40-40 is not exactly out of the question, which would be the first in baseball since 2006.

And while Freddie Freeman isn’t as flashy as the other candidates, you could make a case for him to be in the MVP discussion as well. He’s just 1 home run and 5 RBI away from 30 and 100 with over a month and a half to go.

But if you go based on WAR, which is what a lot of MVP voters use, Acuna has the best chance to compete with Bellinger and Yelich.

Bellinger and Yelich still are at the top with WARs of 7.6 and 6.0 respectively. In fact, MLB has pretty much said they are the only two worthy of the NL MVP this year with the Belli vs. Yeli campaign.

But Acuna is fourth in the NL in WAR at 5.0 and Freeman is 12th at 3.8.

Acuna has the best shot at pushing for the NL MVP in my opinion, even if I think Freeman is the MVP of the Atlanta Braves (outside of Charlie Culberson, obviously) because of his consistency.

However, Acuna does so many different things and is putting up historical numbers that it will be hard to ignore him in the MVP voting.

Moving to right field has given Acuna a boost as well as he’s looked like a Gold Glove player in right after looking below average in left and center this year.

Going into Tuesday’s game against the Mets, Acuna is just 1 run shy of 100 runs scored, 7 home runs shy of 40, and 20 RBI shy of 100.

If he reaches all of those milestone numbers this year, he certainly deserves to be in the MVP conversation.

And he’s only 2 stolen bases away from 30. If he were to reach 40 and hit 40 home runs, I don’t know how he doesn’t win MVP — especially if the Atlanta Braves win the division.

Let’s say Acuna scores 120 runs, hits 40 home runs, drives in 100 from the leadoff spot, and steals 35 bases while batting .300 with an OPS around .950.

I think in most seasons that’s an automatic MVP winner, but Yelich and Bellinger are putting up some pretty big numbers as well. Both of them are likely to finish with 50 home runs and an OPS over 1.000.

It’s really hard to see Acuna overtaking either one of them, but if he keeps playing as he has after the All-Star break, he’ll definitely enter the discussion down the stretch.