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6 hours ago
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The Atlanta Braves will be over the moon to see Ronald Acuña Jr. play again.
It's been almost exactly a year since Acuña tore his ACL on the basepaths in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2023 National League Most Valuable Player has finally completed his rehab, and will make his season debut on Friday night against the Washington Nationals.
Not every player on the Braves' active roster will be stoked to see Acuña, however. That's because someone has to be taken off that roster for him to be added back to it.
On Thursday, one Braves writer urged them to cut bait with a slumping veteran who came to Atlanta much later in the offseason than your typical free agent.
FanSided's Cody Williams wrote in a recent article that the Braves' "obvious choice" should be to dump Alex Verdugo, who signed a free-agent deal in late March that also included an option to Triple-A Gwinnett to help ramp him up to face major league pitching.
"As Red Sox and Yankees fans could've warned Braves fans, though, that (hot start) was never going to last," Williams wrote. In the month of May, Verdugo is hitting just .200 with a dismal .503 OPS. He's become a net-negative at the plate and, though his glove is fine in the outfield, he's not making much of a case to stick around,"
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"More importantly, by comparison, there's really no contest for Verdugo being the obvious choice to cut ties with in order to make way for Acuña."
The only thing working in Verdugo's favor is the $1.5 million contract he got, which is nearly double what a pre-arbitration player like Stuart Fairchild makes. Fairchild could also be immediately optioned to Triple-A if he cleared waivers, whereas Verdugo would first have the ability to elect free agency.
However, he's certainly at the mercy of the Braves' front office based on performance. It shouldn't be long until we find out Atlanta's decision.
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