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Braves promote top prospect Ronald Acuna Jr.

Kim Klement / USA TODAY Sports

Acuna Matata. He's coming, Atlanta.

The Atlanta Braves called up Ronald Acuna Jr. - their top prospect and the No. 2-ranked prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB Pipeline - in time for their game Wednesday in Cincinnati.

The news ends the saga surrounding Acuna's potential promotion that's been a prominent storyline since spring. He began his season in Triple-A despite hitting .432/.519/.727 in spring training, and some suggested that Atlanta sent him down in order to manipulate his service time, a stream of thought that general manager Alex Anthopoulos denied.

"We're looking for Ronald to get hot at this point," Anthopoulos told Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week, when asked why Acuna hadn't been summoned yet. "We'd prefer to call players up when they're performing at a high level, when they're locked in."

Since being signed by the Braves out of La Guaira, Venezuela, the 20-year-old Acuna has quickly emerged as one of baseball's best young talents while rocketing through their farm system. Last year Acuna played at three different levels - High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A - and he hit at all three stops, producing a combined slash line of .325/.374/.522 with 21 home runs, 31 doubles, 82 RBIs, and 44 stolen bases over 139 total games. He was ranked as the top prospect in the game by many outlets heading into 2018; on MLB Pipeline's overall rankings, only Shohei Ohtani was slotted ahead of him.

Acuna got off to a slow start at Triple-A Gwinnett this season after his red-hot spring, hitting .215/.301/.277 with one home run through 73 plate appearances, but he's since hit safely in 10 of his last 12 contests. On Tuesday, in what turned out to be his final Triple-A game before getting the call, Acuna went 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a run scored in Gwinnett's 5-2 win over Rochester.

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