The kids are out of this world: Acuna, Soto making history together

Throughout his half-decade in the big leagues, Atlanta Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte has played against and alongside some of his generation's most superlative-inducing talents. He regularly watches Bryce Harper torment his club's pitching staff. Paul Goldschmidt was his teammate for two years. And thanks to interleague play, he's been able to witness the greatness of Mike Trout firsthand, too.

However, in Inciarte's estimation, none of those dudes compare to Ronald Acuna, the 20-year-old Braves phenom who's hit more home runs since Saturday than Buster Posey has all season.

"He's the best player I've ever seen," Inciarte told The Athletic's David O'Brien on Tuesday.

Indeed, the kid beggars belief.

Acuna, who was promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett in late April, boasts a .922 OPS through his first 67 major-league games (he missed most of June after hyperextending his knee) while piling up some astounding numbers.

In less than half a full season, he's already accrued more fWAR (2.3) than any San Diego Padres position player did in 2017. He's averaging more extra bases per at-bat (.288 isolated power) than both Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. On Monday, he became the first player this century - and only the fourth all time - to lead off both installments of a doubleheader with a home run. The following day, he smacked another leadoff homer, becoming the youngest player in MLB history to go deep in five straight games. He's second on the Braves with 19 home runs, just two behind Ozzie Albies despite appearing in 47 fewer contests.

Still, the most amazing thing about Acuna's numbers are that they somehow pale in comparison to those of another rookie - an even younger rookie in Juan Soto, the Washington Nationals' wunderkind whose efforts to drag his relentlessly disappointing club into the postseason have been nothing short of herculean. By virtually every objective metric, Soto - who was promoted to the majors in mid-May - has been superior to Acuna:

Clearly, Soto has been better, but both players' numbers are still elite among modern-era rookies.

Since 1920, only 19 rookies have managed a higher OPS+ than Soto's 154, while Acuna's 146 mark ranks 39th among first-year players who received at least 250 plate appearances. Moreover, of the dozen rookies to debut in the last half-century who put up a better OPS+ than Soto, one (Carlton Fisk) has been enshrined in Cooperstown, another (Mark McGwire) deserves a spot, and two more (Albert Pujols and Mike Trout) will join the Hall in due time. (Aaron Judge and Yasiel Puig may, too. You never know!)

And while neither Soto nor Acuna will appear in enough games to produce the single greatest rookie season ever, that won't disqualify them from making history - in tandem - if they keep this up.

After all, it's virtually unprecedented for two players so young and so talented to overlap in the same season. Even with a pretty generous qualifying threshold of 250 plate appearances, never before in the live-ball era have two players shy of their 21st birthdays both managed an OPS+ of at least 145 in the same year. (Remember when 19-year-old Mel Ott and 20-year-old Jimmie Foxx tore it up in 1928? Well, as a duo, relative to their league, Acuna and Soto are better.)

To find even a tenuously plausible historical comparison, you'd have to go back to 1884, when Fred Carroll and the unfortunately named Dick Burns dazzled for the Columbus Buckeyes of the American Association and the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association, respectively. (Both associations, it should be noted, briefly enjoyed Major League status.)

Under-21 players with at least 145 OPS+ in same season (min. 250 PAs)

With another six weeks remaining until the postseason, there's reason to believe Soto and Acuna will be able to sustain their mutually torrid pace of baseball-murdering and join a club comprised of a couple guys who played three decades before World War I. Even if Soto's batted-ball outcomes more closely approximate their expected results down the home stretch, he'll still be a damn monster. (Acuna's batted balls, for the record, are falling in as they should.)

Frankly, had they been called up sooner - and had Acuna avoided injury - both players would be in contention for the National League MVP Award, even with some regression over the next month and a half. Instead, come November, one will merely be anointed National League Rookie of the Year, with the other settling for the title of "Guy Who Didn't Win National League Rookie of the Year Because the Other Guy Was Impossibly Good."

Ultimately, barring an unexpectedly rough finish from either Soto or Acuna, another century-plus may go by before two players this young hit at this level in the same season.

Jonah Birenbaum is theScore's senior MLB writer. He steams a good ham. You can find him on Twitter @birenball.