The entire Atlanta Braves offense is feeling the heat after once again laying an October egg in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but no one is under more fire than Ronald Acuña Jr. Understandably so: While he’s been the face of this franchise from pretty much the moment he burst onto the scene with a scintillating Rookie of the Year campaign in 2018, he’s yet to bring his MVP upside into the postseason.

Acuña Jr. entered play on Tuesday with a career .244/.360/.409 playoff slash line. His OPS drops to .595 over Atlanta’s last three October appearances, a number that will be even lower after going 0-for-3 with a walk in Game 3. A Braves team built around its homegrown core of hitters — hitters they’ve thrown plenty of money at on long-term deals — has watched those hitters come up small year after year since that magical 2021 title run. At this point, it’s time for some answers — or it would be, if the best of those hitters were anywhere to be found.

Except Acuña Jr. responded to his no-show on the field by no-showing off of it, leaving his teammates to answer tough questions in his absence. That’s obviously a bad sign for the rest of this series; you don’t want your most talented and high-profile player, the guy who sets the tone, responding to adversity by bailing. But it also carries serious ramifications for Atlanta’s future — a future that Acuña Jr. might not be a part of if he can’t prove that he can fulfill all the obligations of a foundational star.

Can Braves trust Ronald Acuña Jr. enough to lock him up long term?

Acuña Jr. has been a polarizing off-field figure during his time with the Braves, and he’s found himself subject to some pretty unfair discourse along the way. But there’s a difference between policing someone’s behavior and expecting them to live up to their role as a leader.

Struggling in the postseason is one thing; plenty of great players before him have fallen short across several consecutive playoff runs, and plenty of great players after him will do the same. The real concern here, though, is that it seems to have gotten into his head, and he’s choosing to handle it in a way that just makes life more difficult for everybody around him.

And beyond that, it always seems to be something with Acuña Jr., who just a few days ago decided to go on a former teammate’s podcast in the middle of October and air out some dirty laundry. He is inarguably one of the most gifted — if not the most gifted — baseball players on planet Earth. But between his playoff plate approach crumbling, his lengthy injury history and his penchant for drama, does the juice become no longer worth the squeeze at some point?

That’s no longer really a hypothetical question. This is the final guaranteed year of Acuña Jr.’s deal, which also comes with team options for 2027 and 2028 at $17 million each. That’s obviously a bargain for a player as good as he is, and the Braves will absolutely be picking up at least the first of those options this winter. But it won’t be long before Atlanta has to make a longer-term decision, and if they don’t feel like they can hand a 29-year-old with knee issues and a checkered postseason a huge new contract? This relationship could come to an end more quickly than anybody imagined.

Of course, we’re still very far away from firing up Acuña Jr. trade hypotheticals. That said: With every empty night at the plate, and with every instance like this in which he gives Atlanta reason to doubt that he can be the face of a World Series franchise, he’s making the team’s decision easier and easier.