Ronald Acuña Jr. is apparently a fan of Ja Wick.
The Atlanta Braves outfielder Acuña went viral for the celebration that he did during a rehab game on Thursday. Acuña has not played for the Braves at all this season as he continues to work his way back from an ACL tear, but he has now progressed to a rehab assignment for Triple-A Gwinnett.
On Thursday against the Charlotte Knights (Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox), Acuña got a base hit and proceeded to hit a familiar celebration. After touching first base, Acuña pretended to throw a grenade and then covered his ears for good measure too. Take a look at the clip.
Did Acuña really just hit the Ja Morant grenade celebration? pic.twitter.com/fihAIWnqCh
— Peyton (@PeytonTowry) May 15, 2025
That is, of course, the celebration that was recently pioneered by Memphis Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant. The two-time NBA All-Star Morant debuted the celebration towards the end of the regular season last month and then offered a bizarre explanation about how it supposedly wasn’t weapons-related at all but was instead symbolic of him “blocking out the noise.”
Not everyone was a fan of the grenade celebration by Morant, who has gotten into trouble multiple times before for flashing guns on social media and has proceeded to make light of it by doing gun gestures on the court. But it at least appears that Acuña has taken a real liking to the celebration.
That is pretty fitting too since the former NL MVP Acuña is starting to develop Morant’s knack for generating controversy. Earlier this week, Acuña offered an apology for a recent inflammatory post he made to social media.