ATLANTA, GA – Sept 27: Ronald Acuña, Jr. of the Atlanta Braves records his 70th stolen base of the … [+]
This season, Ronald Acuna Jr became the first player in MLB history to reach 40 homers and 70 stolen bases. But, how much of this does he owe to stat inflation in these two statistics?
Obviously, we’ve been in an era of baseball where the home run is even more common on a per-game average than it was even during the Steroid Era, and 2023 was no different despite balls in play being up. In fact, homers this year were up 13% compared to 2022.
But the bigger difference between the two categories was stolen bags, as the bigger bases caused for a 41.2% jump league-wide.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JULY 29: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after his 50th stolen … [+]
So, just to illustrate this, here is what Ronnie’s totals would look like depending on the decade he played in.
Year HR SB
2023 41 73
2010’s 38 55
2000’s 34 58
1990’s 29 74
1980’s 20 78
But, despite some lesser totals in a different league-average, Acuna’s historic season still deserves appreciation, as it’s a club that few players have been able to get close to in MLB history.
Even if we lower the benchmarks to 70 stolen bases and 25 homers, only Eric Davis and Rickey Henderson were able to qualify, and if we lower the stolen bases to 40, only Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Jose Canseco would be close to Acuna.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – APRIL 27: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves reacts after hitting a solo … [+]
Simply put, even though league-wide stolen bases and homers were up, Acuna’s season is still one of the best offensive displays we’ve seen in baseball history.
And it all came in the first season since 2019 where Acuna was able to compile league-leading totals offensively, as the face of the franchise played in over 150 games for jus the second time in his career.
And thanks to the Braves buying out Acuna’s arbitration ahead of the 2019 season in an 8-year, $100 million deal, he will hopefully continue at an MVP-level play until atleast 2028 for Atlanta.
