What the Braves Love About Acuña Batting Lead-Off

Last season, Ronald Acuña Jr. found himself in an unfamiliar role. The Atlanta Braves weren't being drastic and trying him at a different position in the field, but they wanted to see how he performed a bit lower down in the lineup.

He was penciled into the third spot in the order 46 times, more than he was in his usual lead-off spot (43). Before then, he had never batted third ever. He had batted ninth before he had batted third.

Heading into 2026, the Braves are putting Acuña back where he's batted for 677 of his 817 career games. It's where Acuña feels he can be at his best.

"You could make a case for one, two or three with him," manager Walt Weiss said on Sunday. "But I wanted to make sure I had the conversation with him, too. That's part of the equation. What does he really want to do? And he loves leading off, and I love that he sets the tone right out of the gate."

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There's no other spot in the lineup where Acuña has looked as good. It's the logical choice, even if there is a case for elsewhere. When batting first in the order, Acuña has his best batting average (.294), best OPS (.921) and best slugging, when you account for spots in the order he's played more than 13 games at (.535).

Even if he's only guaranteed to lead off one inning each game, the first, it's where he's most comfortable. To take it a step further, this logic still follows the typical wisdom for structuring a lineup.

While the lineup will eventually go from "linear" to "circular," as Weiss put it on Sunday, contact and speed tend to find their way near the top of the lineup. It sets up the bigger bats in the heart of the order to drive them in. Acuña fits that role perfectly.

That being said, that doesn't mean a lead-off hitter can't have some pop. Even the late Rickey Henderson complemented his 1,406 career stolen bases with 297 home runs. Then again, why look to a Hall of Famer to prove that point? Acuña has a 40-70 season under his belt.

That type of firepower certainly makes a pitcher happy to have him on their side.

"There’s some times you're still kind of navigating through the first inning where your arm slot is trying to figure out, and you got I mean, you're talking about arguably one of the best hitters in the league, right out of the gate," Sale said on Sunday.

However, when he's on your team, it can give you all the comfort in the world knowing the production you could get behind you immediately.

"He's ready to swing. He's not going up there, you know, trying to see anything. He's trying to do some damage. So, it's a lot of fun starting the game off with him."

It's safe to say that there are few complaints about him leading off. The team knows what they have. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Setting the tone immediately when trying to bounce back will be needed when they struggled to set it at all at times last year.

Also, he's healthy for opening day this time. Not only can he set the tone early in a game, but he's also ready to set the tone for the entire season.

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