Ronald Acuña Jr. is 1st player to have 40/70 season

Dan Elson, Contributing Writer 

There have only been four players in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases, according to MLB. Atlanta Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. joined that historic club this season and created another one — a 40/70 campaign. 

A 40/40 club is 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season. José Canseco did it in 1988, Barry Bonds in 1996, Alex Rodriguez in 1998 and Alfonso Soriano in 2006, according to MLB. 

Over 20,000 baseball players have played at least one game in the big leagues according to CBS Sports, and no one has hit 40 home runs and stole 70 bases in a season. Acuña is the first player to do so. 

Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz are former players that played for the Braves and all have their numbers retired. They were legends in the game, and Acuña is quickly becoming one. 

Sometimes players get their numbers retired and don’t make the Hall of Fame. Acuña will be one of the greatest players to ever play for the Braves and of the best to ever play the game of baseball.

The 25-year-old super-star had a year for the ages, as he finished the 2023 regular season with 41 home runs and 73 stolen bases, according to MLB.

He is the first player to swipe at least 70 bags in a campaign since Jacoby Ellsbury back in 2009 with the Boston Red Sox, according to Baseball Reference. Ellsbury stole 70 bases that year. 

“It’s one of those numbers that wasn’t impossible but seemed impossible,” Acuña, a four-time all-star, said in a postgame interview.

Baseball is a game that a lot of people find boring. People think not much happens in the game or it takes too long. In the offseason, the league expanded the size of the bags from 15 inches to 18 to see more stolen bases. Acuña took full advantage of that.

There have been more than 3,000 stolen bases this year — the most recorded since 2012, according to MLB.

The night Acuña stole his 70th base, he said in a postgame interview that Truist Park “felt like a playoff atmosphere.”

After Acuña stole No. 70, he picked up the base and raised it over his head, knowing what he had accomplished.

“I thought it was great the way he picked the bag up,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said in a postgame interview. “Fans had to love that. We all did because it was a special moment.”

The Braves finished 104-58 this season—the best campaign since 1998 when the squad went 106-56, according to Baseball Reference. Even though the Braves lost in four games to the Philadelphia Phillies, Acuña played a huge part in the Braves success this season.

Life couldn’t be better for the super star right fielder right now, a recent marriage to his long-term girlfriend Maria Laborde Acuña and adding a potential MVP to his resume. 

Hitting .300 in a season isn’t easy to do in baseball. From 2000-2009, the MLB averaged 39.7 batters who hit .300 or higher. From 2010-2019, the MLB averaged 22.1 players hitting .300 or better. Last year, only 10 players had batting averages .300 or higher according to the Washington Post. 

Acuña hit .337 this year which is the first time ever in his six-year career that he hit over .300 according to Baseball Reference. He finished second in the league behind Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez’s .354 batting average according to MLB.

The Venezuelan native led the league with 217 hits on the season — the first time ever in his career he reached the 200-hit mark, according to Baseball Reference.

A common question is “Who is the best player in the league?” A lot of baseball fans like to say Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani. Both players are superstars that crush home runs at a historic pace, hit for high averages, drive in runs and rack up the hits. 

Judge plays a great outfield and Ohtani is the game’s first two-way player since Babe Ruth. He can dial it up to 100 mph on the mound and strike batters out. 

Even though both Ohtani and Judge spent time on the injured list, none of them have had a 200-hit season in their career according to Baseball Reference.  

Acuña, who won the National League Rookie of the Year in 2018, according to Baseball Reference, is definitely making a case that he is the best player offensively in the league at this moment. 

Acuña has several years left in his prime before he starts to decline. It’ll be exciting to see the type of numbers he’ll put up at the plate in his prime years. Acuña is great for the game and someone that younger baseball players try to idolize.