It comes as quite the shock the Atlanta Braves won a series on the road. They took two of three over the Milwaukee Brewers at their place to get back within nine games of being at .500. So far this season, Atlanta has been occasionally buoyed by its starting rotation, while constantly let down by its bullpen, coaching staff and inconsistent hitters at the plate, but never once by star Ronald Acuña Jr.

In his first 18 games back from a torn ACL, Acuña is hitting .353/.436/.647 with six home runs and 11 runs batted in. While he has yet to steal a base for obvious reasons, his 1.1 WAR is already seventh best on this underpeforming team. As expected, he is the straw that stirs the drink for the Braves. In time, maybe the team finds itself to go on an unexpected playoff run? So are we thinking MVP now?

That may be incredibly premature, but Acuña homered again on Wednesday. His rate stats are through the roof. If he continues to play like this, he might get to around 35 home runs. If he is the reason the Braves make it back to the postseason after an 0-7 start to the year and being down as many as 10 games below .500, I think he would have a case, even over Shohei Ohtani in some ways.

A lot of baseball has yet to be played, but his arrival to the Braves lineup could not have some sooner.

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Why Ronald Acuña Jr. can emerge as the most surprising MVP candidate

No, the Braves are not going to catch Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers in the standings. We may have 3.5 months left in the regular season, but making up ground like that seems out of the question. What is important to know is the Braves still have one of four ways to make the NL postseason. They could win the NL East, but I am not counting on it. So it is all about getting one of the three Wild Card berths.

Where things stand now, Atlanta is nine games back of the San Diego Padres for the third Wild Card berth in the National League. That seems like an insurmountable climb, but we have seen crazier things happen in baseball before. I would argue that we have yet to see the best baseball out of the Braves this season. They will go on a five-or-more-game winning streak at some point this summer.

While I am never in favor of handing an MVP or Cy Young out to a player on a team that is not postseason bound, there have been instances where it is simply undeniable. Not to say it has any real shot at being Acuña this year, based on how bad the Braves are and how many games he missed, but it could happen. I am just glad that the best player on the Braves is finally starting to play like himself.

If Acuña continues to play out of his mind, he might force an issue we did not think was even possible.