Braves’ Ronald Acuna to start season in minors

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (TNS) — Ronald Acuna has been the Atlanta Braves’ and arguably the major leagues’ best player this spring. On Monday he got sent down to the minor leagues.

The move was not unexpected despite his performance, and neither will be the inevitable criticism that Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos receives from some for having the dynamic 20-year-old phenom start the season at Triple-A Gwinnett instead of in left field at SunTrust Park for the big-league Braves — a decision that many will view as largely if not entirely driven by the economics of baseball.

“That’s part of the game. You’re going to get criticized in these jobs, no matter what you do,” Anthopoulos said after the announcement that Acuna was reassigned to minor league camp. “One way or the other, we have to do what feels right, what’s the right path and right development path for the player. In the long run, that’s what’s going to carry the day.”

Acuna had three hits Sunday after homering in each of his three previous games, and entered Monday ranked second in the majors in average (.432), on-base percentage (.519), slugging percentage (.727) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.392). He led the Grapefruit League in each of those categories and didn’t play in Monday’s game, after which Acuna was told of his reassignment by Anthopoulos, assistant GM Perry Minasian and manager Brian Snitker.

Anthopoulos insisted it was for development purposes, that the team wants to make sure they do the right thing for the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball, a player many believe will soon become the next Braves superstar.

“He had a great spring,” Anthopoulos said. “The one thing, we said was that we’d keep an open mind, but we did talk a lot about (how) he ran through the minor leagues last year. Just from a developmental standpoint, to go through three levels the way we did. The more we talked about it from an organizational standpoint, having more development time — no one’s ever been hurt by that.

“We feel like it’s probably best overall, from a philosophical standpoint, to get him more development time.”

Many industry insiders, as well as fans, will not be convinced it was done for any reason other than to assure the Braves of another full season of contractual control before free agency, something that most who follow the team closely had been predicting since before spring training began.

Even his overwhelming performance wasn’t enough to convince the Braves to change their thinking on Acuna’s immediate future.

The Braves also reassigned to minor league camp catcher Rob Brantley, outfielder Dustin Peterson, infielder Christian Colon and relief pitchers Josh Graham and Miguel Socolovich.

But the Acuna move overshadowed all else Monday.

Many around baseball will say that it was a sound decision, that it would have been irresponsible for the Braves to forgo an entire potential season of contractual control just so that Acuna could be on their opening day roster in a season in which no one predicts the still-rebuilding Braves to contend for the NL East title.

Anthopoulos said he knows some will criticize the Braves, who’ve had three consecutive seasons with at least 90 losses, by saying they’re not putting their best possible team on the field from Day 1 of the season.

“Sure, that’s fair,” he said. “And I think you could say the same thing (about 20-year-old pitching prospect Mike Soroka). Arguably from what I saw of Soroka that’s as good a young arm and makeup and command as I’ve seen. And you know what? You’re trying to balance our priority with what’s best for Ronald Acuna’s development, what’s best for Mike Soroka’s development, and ultimately we still have a responsibility to the Braves to put the best team out on the field.

“But the No. 1 priority is going to be the development of each player, because we want them when they’re up here to stay up here. We want them for long, healthy, productive careers, and hopefully to not have the yo-yo of going up and down.”

It means the Braves won’t unveil one of the most highly anticipated young talents in baseball during a six-game season-opening homestand that begins March 29. The earliest the Braves can bring Acuna up and still assure an extra (seventh) season of control before free agency would be April 13 at Wrigley Field in a series opener against the Chicago Cubs.