If they’re sick and tired of answering questions about the status of prospect Ronald Acuna, then Braves players and manager Brian Snitker aren’t coming right out and saying it.
They’re just keeping the answers a little brief, for the most part. Polite, but brief.
Asked again by a reporter Tuesday about Acuna and when baseball’s consensus No. 1 prospect might make his major league debut, Snitker said, “I think he’ll let us know when he’s ready pretty much.”
And that was that.
Acuna was 5-for-36 (.139) with one extra-base hit (double), five walks, 14 strikeouts and a .411 OPS in nine games at Triple-A Gwinnett before Tuesday, including 3-for-21 with three walks and nine strikeouts in five games since his only multi-hit game.
Snitker had also been asked about Acuna on Monday, the Braves’ first home game after a nine-game trip. He’d been more expansive on the subject on that occasion.
“I think the biggest thing with him is he’s probably trying too hard,” Snitker said Monday. “He’s pressing, and he’ll be fine. Again, we had these guys (Acuna and others on Triple-A roster) ready to play. They played (the Braves vs. Future Stars) game, then they were down for nine days. But then you go up and you’ve got bad weather, the game’s cancelled and they haven’t had any routine at all.
“I don’t think it’s just him (struggling) on that team.”
Snitker added, “He’s human. He wants to do good. He’s a young kid who is very talented. I’m sure he’s not the only one down there that’s feeling that way. I don’t think there is anything to really worry about with him.”
When Acuna arrives he’s expected to take over the starting left field job. In the meantime, Preston Tucker has handled left field duties and hit .279 with three homers, 12 RBIs and an .854 OPS in 15 games before Tuesday, when he made his 14th start in 16 Braves games.
“He spent the whole year in Triple-A and got an opportunity this year,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said of Tucker, 27, who spent most of 2015 and a big part of 2016 with Houston, then toiled for the entire 2017 season with the Astros’ Triple-A team without a call-up. “He’s really been having some big at-bats for us. He’s pretty much already won games for us single-handedly already. So he’s been a big part of our lineup.”
Tucker knows his role will change drastically once Acuna arrives and that he could become primarily a pinch-hitter or even be sent to Triple-A since he has minor league options, unlike out-of-options outfielders Lane Adams and Peter Bourjos.
Not that being out of options guarantees that Adams or Bourjos stays and Tucker goes; it does not. The Braves haven’t indicated what their thoughts are regarding that potential move, just as they’ve not indicated when Acuna will get called up, though it’s believed they are going to wait until he snaps out of his funk at Gwinnett and starts hitting like he did at three levels of the minor leagues last season and during major league spring training before being sent to minor league camp.
For now, Tucker knows he’ll continue to field plenty of questions about Acuna.
“That’s what you expect, man. It’s all good,” Tucker said. “He’s a top prospect, he’s a really good player. But then again, he’s young. I think there’s a fine line of, like, there might be a little pressure on him trying to get up here. Then there’s going to be even more pressure on him coming up here. He’s really good; you’ve got to find the right time to do it (bring him up). I’m just trying to do my job up here.”
Tucker’s younger brother, Kyle, is an elite power-hitting outfield prospect with the Astros. And in Houston, Preston Tucker saw plenty of top prospects come up through the minors and become entrenched with the major league team.
“I’ve seen a lot of guys brought up when maybe their (overall) numbers are looking good, but they’re not really playing very well,” he said, “and then they get exposed in the big leagues, and that hits their ego and then they get brought back down. You know, instead of the ‘as soon as possible’ thing, you want to find the best fit for the player. Because (Acuna) is going to play in the big leagues for 15, 20 years. Not too many guys have tools like that.
“So, rather than now, you want to know this guy’s going to come up here and he’s going to have a lot of success and you want him to play every day. So you really – it’s kind of hard to find exactly when that is; it’s probably going to be sometime this year.”
Freeman was asked about how Tucker’s handling all the Acuna questions.
“That’s going to be there,” Freeman said. “I can’t really answer that for Preston. That’s not something we talk about in this clubhouse. We’ve got 25 guys in this clubhouse trying to win a ballgame tonight. Everyone else can talk about Ronald Acuna. Until he's in this clubhouse, we've got 25 guys that are trying to win this game tonight. Preston’s been a big part of this team the first 15 games. He’s in the lineup tonight, and that’s all we care about right now.”
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