Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. named Topps cover athlete for 2024 baseball trading cards following MVP season
Acuña invented the 40-70 club this season
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ronald Acuña Jr. is getting the highly-renowned Topps treatment.
The Atlanta Braves superstar has been tabbed as the cover athlete for Topps' Series 1 baseball trading cards for the 2024 season.
Acuña is featured on each box of cards, as well as the wrapper used for the packs.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A typical box comes with seven packs of 12 cards, but fans are able to purchase hobby boxes — 20 dozen-card packs, with each pack featuring at least one card with a player's autograph or a piece of memorabilia.
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Atlanta Braves player Ronald Acuna Jr. poses with the National League Most Valuable Player award during the 2024 BBWAA Awards Dinner at New York Hilton Midtown on January 27, 2024 in New York City. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Acuña went beyond the "MVP candidate" category in 2023, going out and winning the award thanks to a season that rewrote the history books — in fact, he added a chapter in them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The outfielder started an exclusive club while leading the major leagues with 217 hits as part of a 104-win team that won the NL East for the sixth consecutive year.
Entering last year, no player had ever hit 40 home runs while stealing 50 bases in a season (four had previously accomplished a 40-40 season). Acuña took it to another level, though, smashing 41 homers and stealing not 50, not 60, but 73 bases, taking advantage of the larger bags this year.
Ronald Acuna Jr. is the cover athlete for Topps' Series 1 trading cards this year. (Topps)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Acuña also led the majors with 149 runs scored, 383 total bases and a .416 on-base percentage, while his 1.012 OPS led the National League (third in MLB). He also hit .337, the second-best mark in the majors.
The 26-year-old outfielder was named an All-Star for the fourth-straight time (outside 2020, in which there was no midsummer classic) and earned his third Silver Slugger Award. His 106 RBI were a career-high.
Acuña's previous best finish in the voting had been his fifth-place finish in 2019, just his second season in the majors. He certainly would have been in the race in 2021 had he not torn his ACL in his 82nd game of the season.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ronald Acuna Jr. #13 of the Atlanta Braves flips his bat after hitting a home run in the fourth inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Truist Park on September 8, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)
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Acuña was limited to 119 games in 2022 while still recovering from that injury, and he hit just .266/.351/.413, all career-lows. But everyone knows a fully healthy Acuña can do damage.
Topps turns 35 this year, with this season's designs, made by Robert Grabe, inspired by the company's very first release of the Series 1 in 1989.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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