An unwelcome tune is playing once again for Ronald Acuña Jr.
The Atlanta Braves star outfielder Acuña was forced to exit Tuesday’s game against the Kansas City Royals early. In the sixth inning at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Acuña appeared to come up gimpy while running after a fly ball in right field that ended up going foul.
Two batters later, Acuña came out of the game, lightly jogging as he made his way back into the dugout. The Braves announced shortly thereafter that Acuña was suffering from “right Achilles tightness.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. was removed from tonight's game in the middle of the 6th inning with right achilles tightness. He jogged off the field under his own power pic.twitter.com/5od120b8mN
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 30, 2025
After the game, which Kansas City won 9-6, Atlanta revealed that Acuña would be going on the injured list. Acuña was spotted in the locker room wearing a walking boot and also had to hold back tears as he addressed reporters, per David O’Brien of The Athletic.
The former NL MVP Acuña told reporters that he would be undergoing further evaluation on Wednesday and that he first felt discomfort while running the bases during Monday’s game.
Acuña, a five-time All-Star at 27 years old, already missed the first two months of the 2025 season while recovering from torn left ACL suffered in May 2024. It was the second torn left ACL of Acuña’s MLB career (the first one occurred in July 2021 and cost him the beginning of the 2022 season as well).
With a .309 batting average to go along with 14 home runs and 26 RBIs through 54 games this season (plus some absolutely spectacular plays in the outfield), Acuña appeared to be very much back in form. But now Acuña is set to miss even more time with an injury to the foot opposite from his past ACL injury. It also raises the question of if the Braves will now just decide to punt on their season with a record of 45-61 and a couple of days still left to go before the trade deadline.
