It is also, of course, his turn to get healthy. For the first month and a half after surgery, Acuña said he wondered whether he would ever walk or run again because his leg felt so weak. But now, he happily reported that he was showing progress.
He doesn’t need crutches anymore, nor does he have a noticeable limp. He spends roughly three and a half hours a day in rehabilitation, he said, and he is using weights to strengthen his leg little by little. And soon, he said, he will start swinging a bat and loosening his throwing arm. The rough estimate for his return is early next season, in May.
“If it was up to me, I’ll be back sooner,” Acuña said. “But I’m not in a rush. I have to do everything calmly because it’s my knee and it’s the support of the entire body. When I feel good, I’ll be back.”
As Acuña walked through the tunnel connecting the visitor’s dugout at Minute Maid Park to the clubhouse on Wednesday, he was enveloped in a hug. It was from Ralph Garr, 75, the former Atlanta star outfielder who serves as a special assignment scout for the team.
“I love you to death,” he told Acuña. “How you doing? You got them playing good.”
Acuña laughed. Earlier, he admitted that he was already imagining the team back in the World Series next year — “but with me playing this time.”