BS Report: Acuña and Kalshi

I’ve been very clear over the last couple of months that I believe the Atlanta Braves should trade Ronald Acuña Jr. There are a couple of reasons for that. Number one, the Braves have two team options left on Acuña. His contract for 2027 and 2028, both at $17 million. After that, he will probably want to double that $17 million for 30 to 34 million.

And I do not believe the Braves are going to pay any type of salary like that for him in the long term, considering his injury history. Of course, the playoff struggles have to be brought into the discussion, unfortunately, and he was really bad this year in the playoffs, hitting only 125, and in his career only a 233 hitter in the postseason.

Really. After that grand slam, he hit off Walker Buehler in 2018. Acuña has done much of anything in the postseason, and remember, he was not on the roster when the Braves won the World Series in 2021. But something else has come up that also bothers me a little bit. And this is more not just on Acuña, but on Major League Baseball to a certain extent.

And that is the fact that last week when I was watching the baseball playoffs, all of a sudden I saw a commercial for Kowski with Ronald Acuña as a spokesman. Now, I had read that that was going to happen, so I wasn’t totally surprised. But seeing a member of your baseball team be on a commercial for a prediction market, well, just as uncomfortable is the word.

And look, if the Braves were Major League Baseball told Ronald Acuña he can’t do that. Then Acuña would say, well, hey, Braves, you’ve got a relationship with Cal as well. Probably an advertising deal. Major League Baseball is evidently reportedly trying to prepare some type of similar arrangement. You know, back in the day, years ago, when old players who had already retired, like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays had even a relationship with a casino in new Jersey, baseball would ban them.

And they weren’t even playing anymore. And now, because of the prediction markets where all the rules seemed to be loosened up a little bit. Now, I’m not saying that Ronald Acuña would do anything, you know, untoward here or that there would be any type of irregularities, but it brings into question things that should not be questioned at all.

Like, okay, what if one of Acuña, his family members, or a member of his posse or somebody, a friend of his, goes and tells him, hey, I’m placing a bet on this on your game with you doing this on Tuesday night. Just wanted to let you know. And then let’s say it was about whether or not Ronald Acuña was going to hit a double, for example, now and Ronald Acuña hit one of the gap, but stopped at first base or didn’t hustle out of the box.

Now, we may not know that his friend plays that type of bet or prediction on Ronald Acuña, but what if that happens? That’s what leads to irregularities and questions being asked that you really don’t need to have around your team. So here’s kind of another reason why I’m concerned about Acuña long term potential for this team. I just don’t think that’s something you want to have, in your back pocket there.

And I wish he had not done that. Do I wish the Braves had not done that deal? I wish baseball would prevent teams and players from having anything to do with anything regarding gambling or predicting. Either way, it makes you raise your eyebrows a little bit when you don’t want to. You don’t have to deal with that. Yeah, there are more baseball reasons that I have and contractual reasons for wanting to trade Ronald Acuña, but this little situation does not help.