The Atlanta Braves just can’t seem to get out of their own way in 2025. The team has gotten off to a rough start on the field, beset by a struggling offense and injuries to Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Strider. And while Atlanta is in the midst of a four-game winning streak that has finally gotten Atlanta within shouting distance in the NL East, all anyone wants to talk about is the simmering feud between manager Brian Snitker and star outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr.

The bad vibes began over the weekend, when another outfielder, Jarred Kelenic, was thrown out at second base after failing to run out of the box on a deep fly ball to right field. Snitker not only declined to discipline Kelenic, but seemed to barely register the incident at all — a double standard not lost on Acuña Jr., who was benched for not running hard in a similar situation several seasons ago. Acuña Jr. wasn’t shy about expressing his displeasure on social media, embroiling the team in a days-long controversy.

Finally playing a bit better baseball, and with Acuña Jr. set to return to the top of the lineup in a matter of weeks, the Braves would no doubt love to put this whole thing behind them and focus on the rest of the season. But that’s proven shockingly hard to do for all involved, and a former fan favorite’s media appearance on Tuesday will only make things worse.

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Jeff Francoeur goes way too far in criticism of Ronald Acuña Jr. amid Brian Snitker standoff

Jeff Francoeur has earned a special place in the hearts of Braves fans. A native of suburban Atlanta, Frenchy was a first-round draft pick of the team back in 2002, and while he never quite lived up to his billing as a top prospect, he wound up becoming a folk hero anyway. He now serves as a color analyst on Atlanta’s broadcast team, and he makes frequent media appearances during the season.

The most recent of those came on Tuesday, when he did an interview with 680 The Fan … and decided to dedicate the majority of it to going all the way in on Acuña Jr.’s recent behavior.

Francoeur does have a point when it comes to the Snitker incident specifically. Acuña Jr. would probably have been better off keeping that complaint in-house rather than cryptically airing it over X, and it’s not unfair to say that the superstar still has some maturation to do as he grows into the leader the Braves expect him to be.

From there, though, Francoeur takes his rant totally off the rails. He not only claims that Acuña Jr. in the wrong here, but goes so far as to say that the Braves might be better off without him entirely, citing the team’s run to the 2021 World Series while the outfielder was on the shelf with his first torn ACL.

Which is preposterous in about 17 different ways. For starters, the Braves don’t even make the playoffs that season if Acuña Jr. didn’t set the world on fire before he got hurt, hitting 24 homers in just 82 games. And the idea that this somehow proves Atlanta doesn’t need him moving forward would be funny if it weren’t so sad: Acuña Jr. is the single most important player to this franchise’s future, no matter how much leadership might want to pretend otherwise, and while he hasn’t covered himself in glory here, his dedication to helping the Braves win baseball games should be beyond question.

In fact, he’s done more to help the Braves win baseball games than Francoeur ever did. Any mistakes he’s made over the last few days don’t change that, and don’t give Francoeur the right to write him off entirely.