In Case of Emergency, Break the Glass for Adam Duvall
With Ronald Acuña Jr. injured again, the Braves once more need help from one of baseball's most perplexing journeymen.
Baseball never fails with its strange symmetries.
Three years ago, the Atlanta Braves lost future MVP outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. to a torn ACL in the middle of the season — then swung a series of emergency trades to salvage their season, including one for OF Adam Duvall — before riding their late-season momentum all the way to an improbable World Series title.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and Acuña tragically tore his ACL again, casting doubt once more on a team that otherwise carries championship expectations.
So who’s his understudy in the outfield? Yep… it’s Adam Duvall — again.
Coming back to Atlanta from Boston over the offseason, Duvall has started all nine games in right field since Acuña went down. And, barring a trade for another upgrade, the Braves will lean heavily on their once and future backup-turned-starter for the foreseeable future.
Duvall has had an enigmatic career, to say the least. He’s a three-time member of the 30-home run club — yet, he went into 2024 with just 82 HR outside of those three seasons. As of last year, that’s the fewest home runs by any 10+ year veteran and three-time 30+ HR guy in the seasons he didn’t hit 30.
He’s also a former All-Star, a Gold Glove outfielder, and he won the NL’s RBI crown in 2021 — the same year he won his World Series ring with Atlanta.
And yet, Duvall has never made so much as $10 million in a season at any point during his career. Moreover, he’s only played triple-digit games in four seasons during his career, and just once since 2018. This is despite making only three trips to the injured list during his decade-plus in the big leagues.
Upon reflection, maybe “enigmatic” doesn’t go far enough?
Mostly, Duvall has been straddling the line between a stopgap starter and a really good part-timer for years. The same player with the natural talent to hit a ball 480+ feet — or, more recently, casually knock a beer-cup pyramid over with a throw from 150 feet away — also strikes out in 29 percent of his plate appearances while walking in just 7 percent of them, struggling especially with the slider.
In other words: Just as Duvall’s ability to play defense and crush left-handed pitching always ensures him some kind of MLB role, his flaws have ensured that a team is always looking to find a better option… or at least, a platoon partner.
(Witness his nomadic journey as a big-leaguer, from San Francisco to Cincinnati to Atlanta, to Miami, back to Atlanta, to Boston and now back to Atlanta again.)
But when the moment calls for something more, Duvall has delivered in the past. He had an .800 OPS after coming to Atlanta from Miami at the 2021 trade deadline, combining with Jorge Soler and Joc Pederson to cover the loss of Acuña as well as one could hope to cover the loss of that type of superstar. As much as you might want someone better in the lineup every day, a guy like Duvall is nice to have around in case of an emergency, as the Braves have proven multiple times now.
In that sense, Duvall might be a little like the baseball equivalent of Earl Morrall — the man known as the “greatest backup quarterback who ever lived”. Morrall played an astonishing 21 years in the NFL, but seldom got the chance to be his team’s full-time starting quarterback. On the few occasions when he did, however, he filled in so well that he helped lead two different teams — the 1968 Baltimore Colts (for whom he won the NFL MVP award) and the fabled undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins — to the Super Bowl… only to not actually be his team’s primary QB in either game.
(He did, however, enter Super Bowl V in relief of the legendary Johnny Unitas, bringing the Colts back from down 13-6 to beat the Dallas Cowboys for the 1970 season’s championship.)
Morrall was good enough to stick around for a while and occasionally be brilliant. Duvall isn’t quite as good — his career OPS is ever-so-slightly below average, while Morrall’s career adjusted yards per attempt was mildly above average — but he retains the same sense of the part-timer reluctantly thrust into an important role on a championship team. This is Duvall’s second go-around at it; the first time ended up working out pretty well. Given how perplexing the rest of Duvall’s career has gone, we can’t rule anything out from here.
Filed under: Baseball