Ronald Acuña, Jr. of the Atlanta Braves will miss the remainder of the 2024 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee while changing directions on the basepath in Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This will be the second time in the past four seasons that Acuña had his season cut short by injury. In 2021, he tore the ACL in his right knee attempting to make a difficult catch in right field. That year, he made it through 82 games before his season was cut short; this year, his injury occurred in game number 50.

At the time of his injury in 2021, Acuña was hitting .282 with 24 home runs, 52 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases. The Braves first move in replacing Acuña was to recall Johan Camargo from Gwinnett, but then they loaded up on outfielders.

On July 15, they traded for Joc Pederson, and at the trade deadline two weeks later, they acquired outfielders Adam Duvall, Jorge Soler, and Eddie Rosario.

The Braves were in second place, four games behind the New York Mets when Acuña went down, but with their retooled roster they won the National League East and eventually became World Champions.

The four new outfielders were instrumental in the Braves overtaking the Mets. After joining the Braves, Duvall hit 16 home runs and drove in 45 runs. Soler hit 14 homers, and Pederson and Rosario hit seven apiece.

As well as they performed in the regular season, this quartet of newly acquired outfielders really went to work in the postseason. Pederson hit two pinch-hit home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS. Rosario destroyed the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, hitting .560 with three homers and nine RBIs. Duvall hit two home runs, including a grand slam against the Houston Astros in the World Series. And Soler hit three homers in the World Series, including the decisive three-run bomb in Game 6 that by NASA’s most recent projections should hit Uranus next Tuesday.

This year, Acuña hasn’t been nearly as productive as he was in 2021. At the time of his injury, he was hitting .250 with just four homers, 15 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases. That being said, losing Acuña for the rest of the season is just as big a blow now as it was in 2021.

The focus now turns to how the Braves intend to fill the gap. The Braves recalled outfielder J.P. Martínez from AAA Gwinnett to fill Acuña’s roster spot, but the immediate solution seems to be that Duvall and Jarred Kelenic will play full time rather than platoon; Duvall moves to right field in this scenario. I think Duvall will be more productive playing every day, and I suppose we will find out how Kelenic handles left-handed pitching.

Another three-legged stool scenario could have Marcell Ozuna playing left field against left-handed pitchers, with Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud splitting time at catcher and designated hitter. Obviously, Ozuna is not the best option defensively, but he only would be out there against lefties, and Kelenic or Martinez could relieve him on defense late in the game.

No one should expect whoever replaces Acuña to do what those guys did back in 2021. But there is still room for optimism.

Austin Riley and Murphy are back, and Matt Olson is showing signs of breaking out of a long slump. While they could use another starter (and who couldn’t), the pitching has been good.

And if all else fails, Forrest Wall is just 35 miles up the road in Gwinnett.

(All statistics are from Baseball Reference; game details are from Retrosheet.)