Ronald Acuña Jr. is a superstar. He’s the best player on the Atlanta Braves — one of Major League Baseball’s best teams — as well as one of the best in all of baseball. One of the greatest players in the history of the franchise took his praise of Acuña a step further.
Chipper Jones was a first-ballot Hall of Famer who spent his entire career with the Braves. On Thursday, he was broadcasting Atlanta’s game against the New York Mets for Bally Sports South and made it clear that he thinks Acuña’s talent takes a backseat to nobody in the history of the franchise.
“I’ve said it many times. I believe that this young man is the most talented player to ever don a Braves uniform.”
Chipper Jones with high praise for Ronald Acuña Jr., calling him "the most talented player to ever don a Braves uniform."
A statement that covers some SERIOUS ground.pic.twitter.com/CmLSLagmVv
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 9, 2023
It’s not as though the Braves are devoid of talented players in their history.
Hank Aaron, for example, held the career home run record for more than 30 years. All but 22 of his 755 home runs came with the Braves. Greg Maddux, meanwhile, was a four-time National League Cy Young Award winner, claiming three with the Braves. And that doesn’t even get into other great players like Eddie Matthews, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and of course, Jones himself.
Jones’ comments naturally earned some pushback, with most of that coming from people advocating for Aaron. But Jones had people agreeing with him, as well.
He’s top 2 for sure but there was this one guy that hit 755 home runs and idk but I feel like that takes a whole heck of a lot of talent https://t.co/6U2GXgpW58
— Garrett Spain (@BravesMILB) June 8, 2023
Qualified opinion. https://t.co/ZiJC16WLGj
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) June 9, 2023
I love Ronnie but let’s not pretend Hank Aaron didn’t exist https://t.co/OLKDgMRlsl
— Conrad Close (@conradclose) June 9, 2023
As great as he is, I'm going to go with Hank Aaron on the one. https://t.co/N5me53heeH
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) June 9, 2023
I would have to agree with him, and no disrespect to Chipper at all! He’s amazing too https://t.co/zLn6gjKTYz
— Jess (@braves4life27) June 9, 2023
More talented than Aaron? If you say so. https://t.co/ej2bvOJWiZ
— Adam Gold (@AGoldFan) June 9, 2023
One thing that needs to be mentioned is that Jones did not call Acuña the best player in Braves history. As good as Acuña has been in his still relatively young career, that would be a hard claim to defend.
But saying he’s the most talented means that if everything breaks right, he could one day be better than Aaron.
That’s certainly more plausible, but is still an incredible hill to climb.
