Trade to Blue Jays speculation seems even more unlikely after Ronald Acuña Jr. switches agencies
1 year ago
So you probably saw the news that Ronald Acuña Jr. of the team in Atlanta has fired his agent.
If you haven’t, here is the tweet that confirms it from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
A few weeks ago, Jon Morosi hypothesized a Bo Bichtte for an Acuña swap which would see the Blue Jays the career 134 wRC+ outfielder (you can read more about that here.) While the rumour itself wasn’t exactly credible, it raised the question of “how did it come up?”
We may have gotten our answer today when Acuña fired his former agent. I assume that Acuña hired a new agency because he wasn’t particularly happy with the rumours being leaked, potentially it was the agency that leaked it. We have no way of knowing; this is only speculation on my behalf.
Even if he was disgruntled with the organization about his contract, there isn’t much he can do about it until he reaches free agency after the 2026 season (but likely the 2028 season.)
It’s well known that Acuña has a very favourable team contract, as he signed an 8-year, $100 million deal back before the 2019 season. He will make $17,000,000 million guaranteed until the end of the 2026 season. There are also two team options at the end of the 2026 season and 2027 season, also for $17,000,000 a season.
Acuña’s contract carries a luxury tax salary of $12,500,000, meaning despite making $17,000,000 for the next six seasons, only the $12.5 million counts towards the Competitive Balance Tax limit of $233,000,000 in 2023.
Although I don’t personally consider Acuña “generational”, he is one of the best players in the game. For his career, he’s slashed .277/.370/.517 with a 134 wRC+ in 533 plate appearances. Before a freak knee injury last season, Acuña looked like a front-runner for the National League MVP. The then 23-year-old was slashing .283/.394/.596 with 24 homers in just 360 plate appearances for a 157 wRC+.
He returned from injury in 2022, where he slashed .266/.351/.4413 with 15 homers in 533 plate appearances for a wRC+ of 114. With that being said, he’s still an insane talent, and Atlanta is incredibly lucky to have him on the contract they do.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Brenann_L_D.
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