Buy or Sell: Ronald Acuna Jr. to Win National League MVP

The Atlanta Braves are widely considered a top World Series contender, and Ronald Acuna Jr. is a big reason why. The Braves have jumped out to a 17-9 record atop the NL East, and they’ve been led by Acuna Jr., who’s put together a monster April.

The player we saw in 2022 wasn’t the Acuna Jr. we’d been accustomed to, mainly because he was returning from a significant injury, and it took a while to get his timing back. Those concerns we saw last season have been erased early on, and now he’s the odds front-runner to win National League MVP. The Braves slugger has +1200 opening odds to win the NL MVP, and that number has already been bet down to +350, which has him as the odds-on favorite. 

Few players have the skillset that Acuna Jr. does. No one would bat an eye if he put together a 40-home run and 40-steal campaign. He’s the dynamic presence any team would love to have at the top of their batting order, and he’s already put together some dynamite numbers through April 27. Acuna Jr. has compiled a 1.7 WAR, a .352 batting average, a .443 OBP, and a .995 OPP. That doesn’t even factor in his four long balls or 13 stolen bases. Acuna Jr. can truthfully do a little bit of everything, and his dynamic start has helped put him in the position to win some hardware. 

It won’t be an easy job for Acuna Jr. to win his first-career MVP. There are many high-quality baseball players in the National League, some of which haven’t gotten off to solid starts to the season but are capable of much more. Whether that’s Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Juan Soto, or Nolan Arenado, Acuna Jr. will have his work cut out to continue on this pace and hold down the fort at the top of the odds leaderboard. These are some of MLB’s biggest stars, and you can count on there being points of the regular season where they go through hot stretches and Acuna Jr. tails off. 

Even though we’re expecting a much closer race than we’ve seen, Acuna Jr. is the exact type of player bettors should love to target in the futures department. Even though he owns the shortest odds to capture the coveted award, Acuna Jr. has the talent level and dependability that he makes a lot of sense to buy into to win his first NL MVP in 2023.