Top prospect Ronald Acuna has Braves dreaming of return to glory days

Jorge L. Ortiz | USA TODAY

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Alex Anthopoulos opens the door to his suite at Champions Stadium and a large slice of Atlanta Braves history walks out. Former executive John Schuerholz and ex-manager Bobby Cox, both Hall of Famers, took in the spring training game with the club’s new general manager.

John Smoltz had stopped by earlier in the day, and former teammates and fellow Hall of Famers Chipper Jones and Tom Glavine visited a few days before as well.

For a once-proud franchise immersed in a four-year spell of losing seasons and rocked by a cheating scandal, all those figures serve as a reminder of an illustrious and not-so-distant past.

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For a sign of a possible return to the glory days, perhaps in the not-so-distant future, you need only peek in the direction of the young fellow wearing No. 82 and turning heads wherever he goes.

The Braves have compiled an enviable collection of young arms, featuring the likes of Mike Soroka, Luiz Gohara, Kyle Wright, Kolby Allard and Ian Anderson, a group that may help propel the club’s return to prominence.

But the central figure in those efforts figures to be Ronald Acuna Jr., a 20-year-old outfielder from Venezuela who entered spring training as one of baseball’s most touted prospects and has done nothing to dispel the buzz around him. If anything, he has increased it by hitting .417 with three homers in his first 36 spring at-bats.

Braves followers are now wondering how the team will justify excluding him from the Opening Day roster, the expected move because waiting till mid-April to call him up would grant Atlanta one more year of contractual control.

Yes, fans are already fretting about when Acuna will become a free agent.

“He’s a legit kid. What you read, what you hear, everything is true,’’ said Braves manager Brian Snitker, one of many who compare Acuna with a young Andruw Jones. “The kid’s a gifted baseball player, no doubt about it. Can he get better? Yeah.’’

He did throughout last season in a stunning display of precocious talent while playing the whole year at 19. Despite a slow start, Acuna batted .287 with an .814 on-base plus slugging percentage in 28 games at Class A before earning a promotion to AA, where he delivered a .326 batting average and .895 OPS.

So the Braves decided to challenge him, and in 54 games at AAA, Acuna batted .344 with a .940 OPS. Sense a pattern here? Well, it didn’t stop when he played in the Arizona Fall League, where Acuna won MVP honors with a .325 average, a 1.053 OPS and seven home runs in 23 games.

Asked how he kept improving as the competition got harder, Acuna shrugged and said in Spanish:

“I don’t think in terms of whether the next level is going to be tougher. I just go out to do my job, have fun and do what I know how to do, which is to play hard and play my game.’’

As thrilled as they were with his performance, the Braves want to proceed cautiously. For one, Anthopoulos points out Acuna never stayed long enough at any level for the league to adjust just to him, so the club doesn’t really know how he will react to that.

In addition, the Braves are in the fourth year of a rebuild that’s not expected to be completed this year – they’re generally picked to finish third or fourth in the NL East – so there’s no sense in rushing Acuna.

That lesson was underscored by the struggles of shortstop Dansby Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft who was demoted to the minors for two weeks last year and wound up batting .232 for the season.

Whenever the Braves decide is the right time for Acuna to break in, Snitker expects him to handle the hype surrounding him with aplomb.

“It’s a different day and age than when Chipper and Andruw and those guys came up,’’ Snitker said. “They (this generation) live under that microscope. They grow up with social media and all the attention. These guys get here and it’s nothing new to them. They’re used to it.’’

A five-tool player who can handle any of the outfield positions, Acuna has his own style. He strides to the plate confidently, draws a cross with his bat on the dirt behind the umpire and taps it before approaching the batter’s box. Early in camp there was a minor flap over the way Acuna wore his cap during an interview, but that’s a non-issue now.

Still, there are times when Acuna acts his age, as he did after getting hit by a Mike Fiers curveball during an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

Fiers was obviously struggling with his control and had no intention of hitting him, but Acuna was clearly annoyed with the plunking. When he reached first base, Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera – who used to play winter ball against Acuna’s dad – kidded him about his reaction. He also shared some tips on the game’s subtle points.

“When you’re young, you may not have the maturity or the experience to know how to react in that kind of situation,’’ said Cabrera, who expressed admiration for Acuna’s ability. “A lot of people might not understand it, but I was a 20-year-old player once and I did many things then like he did today.’’

The Braves’ assemblage of high-end prospects – which also includes third baseman Austin Riley and outfielder Cristian Pache – earned them Baseball America’s top ranking among all organizations in 2017 and ’18.

That’s in spite of the 13 prospects the Braves had to release from their contracts last November as one of the penalties for circumventing international signing rules from 2015-17. Then-GM John Coppolella was banned for life as part of the sanctions, which will also limit Atlanta’s ability to bid for international prospects until 2021.

High-priced prospects like infielder Kevin Maitan, who received a $4.25 million signing bonus, catcher Abrahan Gutierrez ($3.53 million) and shortstop Yunior Severino ($1.9 million) were granted free agency.

“It’s a bump on the road as far as I’m concerned,’’ said Anthopoulos, the former Toronto Blue Jays GM who replaced Coppolella. “It speaks volumes about this organization that you could lose that many players and still have a very highly ranked system.’’

But is it ready to produce a turnaround after the Braves lost at least 90 games each of the last three seasons? Probably not just yet, given the usual growing pains most youngsters endure.

Atlanta got two excellent months last year from second baseman Ozzie Albies, who made his debut in August at 20, and also promoted rookie lefties Sean Newcomb and Gohara, who had their ups and downs.

Anthopoulos expects Acuna, Riley, Soroka and Allard to break in this year. Both pitchers are former first-round picks, and the Canadian-born Soroka is already showing the poise of a veteran.

“Big, strong kid, looks like an adult, looks like a finished package,’’ said right-hander Brandon McCarthy, who’s entering his 13th season. “Watching his bullpens, watching him work, he looked like someone who had a very good idea of what he’s doing. There’s a lot of command there. He looked like a big leaguer pitching, which is not a common thing for a 20-year-old.’’

The Braves’ average attendance of 30,929 ranked 12th in the majors last season, when they opened a new stadium, SunTrust Park. Their only contractual commitments beyond this season are to first baseman Freddie Freeman, pitcher Julio Teheran and center fielder Ender Inciarte, for a total of about $38 million.

That financial flexibility combined with the incoming talent put them in position to build another perennial contender. They clearly need more pop in the lineup, and it just so happens there will be some powerful sluggers available in the free agent market after the coming season.

Anthopoulos said the club will have plenty of resources at its disposal to supplement the roster, but before deciding what kind of help to pursue, he wants to see what this season brings.

“I’ve said a lot of times that 2018 will tell us a lot about what we need to do,’’ Anthopoulos said, “because we have a lot of talented players who have a chance to fill those spots for us, and the more that happens, the better position we’re going to be in.’’

It could be good enough to allow Braves fans to fantasize about a return to the days of the Jones boys, Smoltz, Glavine et al.