ATLANTA -- Alex Anthopoulos didn’t reach for the kind of over-the-top vow Braves fans once heard from a previous front office leader, but he still left no room for interpretation on Ronald Acuña Jr.
The Braves president of baseball operations said plainly that Acuña is not going anywhere this winter, brushing aside the trade chatter that has circulated among fans in recent weeks.
“There’s not even a hint of smoke to it,” Anthopoulos said. “There’s zero.”
Pressed again on whether Acuña would be traded, Anthopoulos doubled down.
“Absolutely not. Yeah.
There you go. Put it in bold.”
Anthopoulos made it clear the Braves haven’t even entertained the idea of moving one of their biggest stars. Instead, he said the focus is on building around him.
“We need him,” Anthopoulos said. “We need to add to him. Obviously, we need more than just him.”
That work will continue this week at the General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas, where Anthopoulos will sort through a roster that still has plenty of holes. Atlanta needs help in the rotation, has a shortstop vacancy to address, must decide how to handle left field and still has bullpen questions to answer.
Acuña’s status is part of that bigger offseason picture. He’s coming off a frustrating, injury-hit season in which he hit .255 with 20 homers, 21 stolen bases and a .796 OPS across 107 games. Two left hamstring strains kept him on the injured list for nearly two months.
The bigger question for the Braves is what comes next for the 2023 NL MVP, who has already dealt with major knee injuries in his career, tearing his left ACL in 2021 and his right ACL in 2024. Still, there were encouraging signs late this season. Acuña finished the year with a .997 OPS over his final 26 regular-season games, a stretch that echoed the .935 OPS he posted after returning from the right ACL tear two months into the 2025 season.
“He’s a huge part of the club,” Anthopoulos said. “We need right-handed bats. He was an integral part of our lineup, especially in the biggest games of the year in September.”
Atlanta’s lineup issues go beyond Acuña’s health. The recent drops from Austin Riley and Sean Murphy have made the need for a right-handed bat even more obvious, and left field remains an open spot. That has led to internal discussion about possible additions such as Randy Arozarena or Seiya Suzuki.
If the Braves go the platoon route in left field, Mike Yastrzemski could fill the left-handed side of the arrangement. The right-handed half could potentially be Jurickson Profar, though that remains unsettled.
Profar is in the final year of a three-year contract and has appeared in only 80 games during that span. He was suspended for 80 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance in 2025, then received a 162-game suspension after testing positive again this year.
“[Manager Walt Weiss] and I have started to talk about that role, things like that,” Anthopoulos said. “We haven’t come to any conclusions at all.
But look, it’s a topic. It’s something that’s going to need to be addressed at some point.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be addressed today, because we have the offseason and the roster can change and things can change.”
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For the Mets, the timing matters because this is exactly the kind of arm that can change the outlook of a rotation. Toronto is trying to rebuild its pitching after a season hit by injuries and a disappointing finish in the AL East, and that urgency figures to make the bidding even more intense. If the Blue Jays are serious, the Mets may have to fight harder than expected to land the premier starter on the board. [Read more 🡒]