Beyond the troubles on the field, which has led to a 9-13 start, the Atlanta Braves aren\u2019t acting like a winning organization off the field either, which was perfectly highlighted over the weekend.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s mistake, which is disturbing for a plethora of reasons, and Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. went on to make it a national story by airing out his frustrations publicly on Twitter\/X.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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 Acu\u00f1a Jr. taking to social media to let everyone know he\u2019s unhappy are the antics of an upset teenager, not the leader of a club with championship aspirations.<\/p>\n
Everybody deserves their fair share of criticism, but Jeff Francoeur took it a step further when discussing the 2023 NL MVP\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet 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\u2026 And those guys are trying their butts off every single day,\u201d Francoeur said on 680 The Fan. \u201cYou 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\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cRonald Acu\u00f1a Jr. was warned time after time after time, let\u2019s talk like 10 times, to run before he ever got yanked. This is the first time Jarred Kelenic has ever done it\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cRonald basically buried a teammate. This wouldn\u2019t have been a national story, ya\u2019ll probably wouldn\u2019t have even talked about it Monday if he did not mention it in a tweet\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIf ya\u2019ll want even more context, let\u2019s go back to 2019. We all remember when the Marlins hit Ronald about 10 times. I didn\u2019t see many players out their sticking up for him, who was the first guy out of the dugout\u2026 Snit was the first one out there\u2026 And I\u2019ll say this man, I learned from the best in Bobby Cox. I love that man, and he used to always tell me there\u2019s nobody bigger than the A\u2026 We won a World Series without Ronald, we went to the playoffs with Ronald. You don\u2019t have to have him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeff Francoeur certainly did not hold anything back, and for the most part, he\u2019s right. This is a distraction the Braves do not need right now, and nobody would have talked about it at all had Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. not aired out his dirty laundry on social media. If he had an issue, and he\u2019s right to be disgruntled, it\u2019s a conversation that should have been had behind closed doors.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Leaders naturally know how to handle these situations, and Acu\u00f1a unfortunately showed a bit of his true colors over the weekend.<\/p>\n
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 Acu\u00f1a Jr. over the last several seasons. 2021 is starting to become a distant memory. Acting as if the team doesn\u2019t need him is blasphemous. They do, but they also need some leadership in the clubhouse, and that starts with the man Francoeur is defending \u2014 Brian Snitker.<\/p>\n
\u2014<\/p>\n
Photographer: John Adams\/Icon Sportswire<\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nShare The Love<\/h3>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"