Acuna denies receiving $30M extension offer from Braves

Atlanta Braves star prospect Ronald Acuna claims he never rejected a $30-million extension from the club because he never received the offer in the first place.

Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Acuna said he didn't know where the rumor originated and that he's never been approached with an offer from the Braves.

"To be honest I'm not sure where that came from," Acuna said through a translator, according to David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Because as of now we haven’t received a contract, no one's talked to me about it and there was no contract that was turned down or anything like that. So I'm not sure where that started from but that hasn't been the case."

It was reported Monday that Acuna recently rejected a $30-million contract extension in the range of five-to-six years. An additional report stated there have been informal discussions, but that the team hasn't presented an offer.

Acuna is the No. 2 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and is coming off a remarkable spring training. In 16 games during major-league camp, he hit .432/.519/.727 with four home runs, 11 RBIs, and four stolen bases. Despite his performance, the Braves sent him down to minor-league camp, ostensibly to delay starting his service-time clock and to gain another year of control.

Atlanta will now likely wait until April 14 to bring Acuna to the majors, which would keep him under team control through the 2024 season.

While awarding extensions to players before their MLB debuts is rare, it does happen. In fact, the Philadelphia Phillies just agreed to a six-year, $24-million extension with prospect Scott Kingery on Sunday. The 23-year-old second baseman had just 63 games of Triple-A experience prior to signing.