Beyond the troubles on the field, which has led to a 9-13 start, the Atlanta Braves aren’t acting like a winning organization off the field either, which was perfectly highlighted over the weekend.
By now, everyone is aware of what happened. Jarred Kelenic pimped a single that led to him being thrown out at second base in a tie game. Brian Snitker responded by stating that he was unaware of Kelenic’s mistake, which is disturbing for a plethora of reasons, and Ronald Acuña Jr. went on to make it a national story by airing out his frustrations publicly on Twitter/X.
There are no winners in this situation. Jarred Kelenic, a guy who is barely hanging onto the roster by a thread, should have never pimped a single in a tie game that ended up costing the Braves a run. Brian Snitker certainly could have handled the situation miles better than he did, and Ronald Acuña Jr. taking to social media to let everyone know he’s unhappy are the antics of an upset teenager, not the leader of a club with championship aspirations.
Everybody deserves their fair share of criticism, but Jeff Francoeur took it a step further when discussing the 2023 NL MVP’s actions.
“Let me start with this, there are 26 guys in that locker room that are busting their ass every single day, and they are taking crap from all of us, all the national media… And those guys are trying their butts off every single day,” Francoeur said on 680 The Fan. “You finally get something going in your direction and you got a guy who is supposed to be your teammate tweeting, probably out in LA, something that is completely meaningless and stupid…
“Ronald Acuña Jr. was warned time after time after time, let’s talk like 10 times, to run before he ever got yanked. This is the first time Jarred Kelenic has ever done it…
“Ronald basically buried a teammate. This wouldn’t have been a national story, ya’ll probably wouldn’t have even talked about it Monday if he did not mention it in a tweet…
“If ya’ll want even more context, let’s go back to 2019. We all remember when the Marlins hit Ronald about 10 times. I didn’t see many players out their sticking up for him, who was the first guy out of the dugout… Snit was the first one out there… And I’ll say this man, I learned from the best in Bobby Cox. I love that man, and he used to always tell me there’s nobody bigger than the A… We won a World Series without Ronald, we went to the playoffs with Ronald. You don’t have to have him…”
Jeff Francoeur certainly did not hold anything back, and for the most part, he’s right. This is a distraction the Braves do not need right now, and nobody would have talked about it at all had Ronald Acuña Jr. not aired out his dirty laundry on social media. If he had an issue, and he’s right to be disgruntled, it’s a conversation that should have been had behind closed doors.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Leaders naturally know how to handle these situations, and Acuña unfortunately showed a bit of his true colors over the weekend.
With that being said, Jeff Francoeur is also taking it a bit overboard himself. The Braves have been a below .500 baseball team without Ronald Acuña Jr. over the last several seasons. 2021 is starting to become a distant memory. Acting as if the team doesn’t need him is blasphemous. They do, but they also need some leadership in the clubhouse, and that starts with the man Francoeur is defending — Brian Snitker.
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Photographer: John Adams/Icon Sportswire
