Phillies Manager Goes After Braves' Ronald Acuna Jr. For Excessive Home Run Celebration

Ronald Acuna Jr. has never been shy about celebrating home runs, and boy oh boy did he take his time after hitting a home run in Tuesday's game against the Phillies.

Acuna's in the midst of an MVP caliber season, hitting .333/.415/.586 with 37 home runs and a major league leading 65 stolen bases. Hitting in the impressive Atlanta Braves lineup, Acuna's also scored 132 runs, leading to 7.1 fWAR, the third highest figure in Major League Baseball.

Even with those awe inspiring stats, Acuna's been unlucky. His expected weighted on base average, a metric that accounts for the quality of contact (exit velocity, launch angle) a hitter makes, is .464, the highest of any qualified hitter. His actual wOBA however, is just .423, meaning he's suffered from some level of poor luck results wise.

Thanks in large part to Acuna's performance, the Braves have run away with the NL East, opening up a 16 game lead on the second place Phillies with just 17 games remaining. And in last night's game, he let the Phillies know exactly how happy he is about it.

In the top of the 5th inning, Acuna launched a 424-foot home run off starter Zack Wheeler and went nuts. He admired it heading out of the box, then pointed, flapped his arms, paused rounding third to catch a fake football, then celebrated again at home plate. And Phillies manager Rob Thomson noticed.

"I like our guys to act like they've been there before," Thomson said about the celebration.

Well Acuna's certainly been there before.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 31: Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves celebrates his grand slam home run with Orlando Arcia #11 during the second inning at Dodger Stadium on August 31, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Acuna Jr. became the first player with 30 home runs and 60 stolen bases in a season.(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Ronald Acuna Ignites Celebration Debates, Yet Again

There are two equally valid sides to the debate over celebrations in baseball. On the one hand, letting players show emotion, have fun and show they care is widely viewed as a positive development.

On the other hand, there's a line where most agree it becomes excessive, or unjustified given the situation.

Some players and teams have taken to absurd displays of choreographed routines in games that are already decided. Bat flips when you're trailing 9-2 in the 9th inning don't land quite as hard as a lead changing home run in a meaningful game.

Acuna's celebration gave the Braves a 3-1 game in the 5th inning against one of their division rivals. And it's hard to criticize a player for celebrating a relatively important home run in a game that moves them one step closer to clinching a division title.

Phillies players like Bryce Harper or Kyle Schwarber have also been known to admire their work after hitting home runs, and justifiably so.

As with so many of these instances, Braves fans will say Acuna's celebration was justifiable, and Phillies' fans won't. Regardless, if he keeps playing this well, he'll have plenty more reasons to celebrate in October.