The best team in baseball will be without its biggest star for several weeks.
The Braves signed Ronald Acuña Jr. on the injured list Sunday with a left hamstring strain. Acuña left Saturday’s game after experiencing severe pain while running. Superintendent Walt Weiss told reporters that imaging revealed a Grade 1 strain, the worst grade. According to MLB.com, Weiss said:
“It’s not going to be a few days. It’s going to be longer than that, so we need to get him on IL, and hopefully it’s going to be soon. I don’t know how long this soft tissue injury is going to last, but I think the silver lining is that the MRI showed it wasn’t too bad.”
Although most players return from a Grade 1 hamstring strain in just a few weeks, or even after a minimum of 10 days, this is an injury that can delay return.
This, obviously, is less than the Braves deserve. Acuña is their best player and was shown in the preseason as the ninth best player in baseball with 5.4 WAR, according to our depth charts. While his performance hasn’t been spectacular thus far, with a 111 wRC+ in 152 plate appearances, his .381 xwOBA and 12.2% slugging percentage — along with a solid strikeout and walk rate — suggest he’s not missing a beat this year, as he’s coming off his 2025 season.
Of course, last year was a comeback campaign because Acuña missed most of 2024 (and early 2025) after tearing his ACL. He also missed parts of 2021 and 2022 with a torn ACL in one knee. In 2018, he missed almost a month with an ACL sprain. That means Acuña’s hamstring is his fourth injury requiring IL time in his career.
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To replace Acuña on the active roster, the Braves called up pinch hitter José Azocar, who has a 74 wRC+ over four seasons in the majors. Azocar may not play much, as the Braves are expected to rely on Mike Yastrzemski and Eli White in Acuña’s absence. But center fielder Michael Harris II has missed three of the last four games with a quad injury, so depending on what happens, Azocar could be thrust into more playing time than expected.
The Braves faced a rash of injuries in the first season, especially to their pitching staff. They got a key piece on Sunday, when Spencer Strider returned from a groin injury (though his outing didn’t go well). But with Acuña out, the Braves have 12 players on the IL.
Still, the start of the season has been a huge success in Atlanta, as Jay Jaffe said last week. At 25-10, the Braves not only boast the best record in the majors, they also have the best run differential. While Acuña’s short-term absence may be a challenge, they sit comfortably atop the NL East.
Cal Raleigh, Ben Rice Sit tight
The Braves head to Seattle on Monday to face the Mariners, who may or may not be without their starters.
Cal Raleigh sat out Saturday’s game with what was described as “general pain.” Before Sunday’s game, he told the media that he was dealing with pain in his head. The issue started on Friday, although he said there was no specific game that caused it. So far, Raleigh has not been listed as injured; the Mariners have called up catcher Johnny Pereda for now.
After struggling out of the gate in 2026, Raleigh has picked up five of its last 10 games. Unlike the Braves, the Mariners are in no position to stay afloat without one of their top players. They entered the season as the favorite in the American League with our Playoff Odds, but after being swept by the Royals, they sit at 16-19. The good news for the Mariners is that the rest of the AL West remains underwhelming, and we still give them the second best chance in the AL to win the World Series. But as I said in the preseason, Seattle’s success depends heavily on Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez being healthy and productive.
Leap-frogging the Mariners to get the best chance to win the American League against the Yankees, it also happens that the star slugger is sidelined for a while. Ben Rice is listed as day-to-day with a hand injury. The injury occurred when he caught a groundout from Max Fried in the third inning on Sunday. The ball appeared to catch him the wrong way in the palm, where the padding of his glove was too small.
Before the injury, Rice hit his 12th homer of the year in the first inning. After the injury, he hit a popup that landed in the wrong spot for a double in the fourth. He was ejected when the Yankees took the field in the fifth. The two extra-base hits gave him a league-leading 224 wRC+.
Aces Down
The top three players also went down over the weekend.
The Twins’ Joe Ryan left Sunday’s start with a sore elbow after facing just two batters. He hit the first one, walked the second one, then pointed to the bench.
Ryan’s fastball velocity dropped to start the season, from 93.7 mph last year to 92.6 mph. That slump didn’t seem to affect him too much, as he entered the day with a 2.99 FIP in seven, making him one of the top 15 starters by WAR. The last fastball he threw on Sunday, however, was 90.9 mph.
The extent of the injury is unclear, though it is thought to require at least a trip to IL. Ryan will get the pictures this week. If he returns healthy, he is expected to be one of the most sought after players at the deadline.
Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski was ruled out of his start Friday with a hamstring injury. He had thrown 5 1/3 hitless innings with eight strikeouts against the Nationals. He also threw 43 pitches 100 mph or faster, just four shy of Hunter Greene’s single-game record of 47. He then threw a 98.9-mph fastball before leaving the game with the trainers.
Misiorowski said he felt discomfort from the start of the sixth inning. According to the Associated Press:
“Maybe about the last warmup pitch I had everything for the first time,” Misiorowski said. “It wasn’t really bad until the first pitch [James] Wood, and then really caught. One of those things.”
Misiorowski is not scheduled to make the snap, and the Brewers believe he has avoided serious injury. You are everyday.
Red Sox left fielder Suarez is also hoping to avoid a serious hamstring injury. He exited Sunday after the fourth inning, his number 70. Suarez was closing and going through the Astros’ lineup, then did not return to the mound to start the fifth.
He said that after the game, it was a tightness in the right muscle. He also missed time in 2023 with a right hamstring injury, though he said this time he felt different. He hopes he won’t need to be put on IL.
The Red Sox hope so. They entered the season with the best rotation in the majors and have since lost their top two starters in Garrett Crochet (shoulder inflammation) and Sonny Gray (hamstring strain). The Grays are expected to bounce back after staying at least in the IL, but losing any time to their starters will make it difficult to climb out of their hole in the AL East.
Veteran Starters on the shelf
The Brewers placed Brandon Woodruff on the injured list with shoulder inflammation Friday, a day after he left his start in the second inning, with his fastball averaging 85 mph — more than 7 mph below his average from last year. He told reporters that there is nothing wrong with his shoulder and he expects to stay at least in IL.
The Angels placed Yusei Kikuchi on the injured list on Sunday because of shoulder inflammation, since his start on Wednesday, he exited after just two innings. His 3.73 FIP (despite a 5.81 ERA) so far this year is an improvement from his first season in Anaheim, helping the Angels boast an impressive top-five rotation with WAR so far in 2026. The team has not given a timeline for his return.
Editor’s Note: This story was filed before news broke that two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal will undergo surgery on his left elbow to remove loose ligaments. We’ll be talking about injuries being a different part on Tuesday.
