Rookie of the Year Poll Results: Acuna or Soto?

By Will McGuinness

Here we are- Ronald Acuna Jr. just hit his 18th home run of the season, good for his 5th straight game with a home run. That ties an all-time Braves record.  To make it even more impressive, that’s his third game in a row leading off with a dinger. But according to an MLB.com poll released today, Juan Soto of the Nationals still holds a comfortable lead in the Rookie of the Year race.  To that I would concur at the moment, but I will say it is getting closer and closer by the day. What looked like a closed race for the Nationals’ teenager has now turned into a dogfight.

By comfortable lead it should be mentioned that 31 out of 32 MLB.com baseball reporters polled voted for Soto in first place, and that’s in the midst of this torrid stretch by Acuna.   That was less competitive than the AL Race, with perceived favorite Gleyber Torres only garnering 21 out of 32 first place votes over teammate Miguel Andujar and the Angel’s Shohei Ohtani.  Soto has been absurd though. A lot of people forget he boasted a .421 OBP heading into play tonight to go along with a .301 average for the whole season. The only stat Acuna has Soto beaten at is home runs, with Soto still posting 15 in his rookie season.  The Nationals’ Left Fielder even has more RBI’s than Acuna on the season.

Ronald Acuna has played 8 less games than Juan Soto, but an injury derailed the momentum he built at the beginning of the year.  Ever since the Braves moved him to leadoff after the All Star Break, he’s hit the cover off the ball. In 23 games in that spot after the break, he’s hit 10 home runs in just 23 games, hitting .344 in that span.  To me it’s being revealed we are watching the better player over this span. Before this season, scouts raved that Acuna was a rare 5 tool player, even claiming “evaluators get downright giddy when discussing Acuna.” Soto had a successful minor league career, performing and succeeding at a young age, even winning Gulf Coast MVP, but he was never the same type of talent. (He was usually around #30 for top prospects).  It’s clear he possesses exceptional hand speed, great discipline and good power, but he’s not the same 5 tool talent. I see Acuna winning this award by season’s end by leading the Braves to a playoff spot, and next year I see him competing for the NL MVP as a true elite talent in all phases of the game.