ATLANTA — After a nearly year-long rehab from knee surgery, Atlanta Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. is expected to be activated from the injured list and play Friday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres in Atlanta, the team announced Thursday. It’ll be three days shy of the one-year anniversary of a torn left ACL that required season-ending surgery the following week.
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Acuña was scratched from the lineup for Triple-A Gwinnett’s game Thursday night at Louisville, a strong indication that the Braves planned to activate him. He told Atlanta manager Brian Snitker that he felt great after playing all nine innings in right field for Gwinnett on Wednesday, Acuña’s first full rehab game in the outfield.
A standup double (just shy of leaving the park) for the former MVP, Ronald Acuña Jr.😤 pic.twitter.com/Iz6hijoUi8
— Gwinnett Stripers (@GoStripers) May 21, 2025
In six rehab games — one in the Florida Complex rookie league, five in Triple A — Acuña went 6-for-15 (.400) with two doubles, two home runs, seven walks and two strikeouts, for a .591 OBP and .933 slugging percentage.
Acuña, the 2023 NL MVP, tore his right ACL in July 2021 and returned to the lineup after 9 1/2 months. The Braves have been more conservative with each step of his rehab this time, in hopes that Acuña can avoid the residual soreness and inflammation that slowed him throughout the 2022 season after he returned a little sooner than they originally planned from the previous knee surgery and rehab.
They have stuck to the initial rehab plan throughout the process this time, with Acuña agreeing to let the doctors and trainers decide when he was ready to take each next step.
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
