Ronald Acuña versus Juan Soto. Why Acuña has been better statistically.
By Sam Peebles
As the season is starting to ramp up, there are many outlets that have put out their player rankings. These are always a fun read, and fun to debate as well. One thing that most of these rankings have in common is that the Atlanta Braves’Ronald Acuña and the Washington Nationals’ Juan Soto are typically ranked very closely to each other.
Acuña and Soto will most likely always be connected in some way or another due to them both being elite talent, and breaking into the MLB in the same year with a bang.
Most rankings have both the Atlanta Braves Acuña and the Nationals’ Soto the in their top 10.
It would be hard to argue that they are not. However, most of these rankings show Soto ranked higher than Acuña.
There is no better time to evaluate Atlanta Braves’ Ronald Acuña Jr. and Nationals’ Juan Soto
It just so happens that both players have played exactly 313 games prior to 2021. It doesn’t get better perfect timing that that.
It’s fair to say arguing their rankings is splitting hairs. Both players are elite, and any team would be happy to have them starting for them. With that being said, to put Soto ahead of Acuña from a pure statistical and value standpoint just does not track.
From a pure offensive standpoint, Soto is one of, if not the best, in all of baseball. To say Soto brings more value with the bat than Acuña is true. If someone says he does not, they most likely have some sort of bias playing a factor.
However, there is more to baseball than just hitting. Baseball is not a timed game. What that means is that it’s not who can score the most runs in a time period to win. The team that wins most games over a full season is the one that typically has the biggest run differential. It’s a combination of hitting, baserunning, and defense.