ATLANTA — Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr. has amazed fans with his power for the past several years. Next week, he will take center stage when he competes in the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on July 18 at Dodger Stadium. The Braves superstar announced her involvement Monday on her Instagram account.
Acuña will be competing in the Derby for the second time. The Braves right fielder was eliminated by the eventual winner – Pete Alonso of the Mets – in the semifinals of the 2019 edition. Alonso also confirmed his participation at this year’s event, which kicks off at 8 pm ET.
Acuña will also be one of the starting outfielders for the National League in the All-Star Game, which will be played at Dodger Stadium on July 19. The young outfielder earned that honor when he received more votes than any other NL player in Phase 1 of the voting process for the second year in a row. He was unable to play in last year’s Mid-Season Classic due to the right knee injury he sustained on July 10.
Acuña has 13 home runs of 450 feet or more since his 2018 rookie season. The Rockies’ CJ Cron (14) is the only one with more in that span. But Acuña’s homers average 416 feet, the most in the majors since he debuted.
When Acuña competed in the 2019 Derby, he hit a total of 25 shots to eliminate Josh Bell in the first round, before falling 20-19 to Alonso in the second round.
Acuña has eight home runs this season since returning from injury on April 28. But despite missing the second half of last season and most of the first month of 2022, he entered Sunday as one of 25 players with at least 113 homers since the 2018 season began.