Left Field: Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves
2019 fWAR: 5.6
In a battle of very young and elite outfielders, Acuña beats out Juan Soto for this spot. When compared to some of his rate stats from 2018, it’s not that the Braves outfielder necessarily took a huge step forward. His wRC+ went from 143 to 126 and his ISO went from .259 to .238, while his walk rate (9.2% to 10.6%) and his strikeout rate (25.3% to 26.3%) remained rather similar.
The biggest difference was that he was in the big leagues all year long. After getting just 487 plate appearances as a rookie, that number went up to 715 in his sophomore season. The results were eye-popping from a counting-stat perspective. He nearly posted the first 40-40 season in quite some time (41 homers and 37 stolen bases) while also scoring 127 runs and driving in 101.
He did make some changes in his batted-ball profile that helped with this production. Check out how his line-drive rate, ground-ball rate, fly-ball rate, and infield-fly rate changed from 2018 to 2019:
With a hard-hit rate that remained stellar (44.4% in ’18, 46.0% in ’19), Acuña was bound to have a season like this.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
