In case you needed an update on how the Atlanta Braves are doing these days, beyond their 9-13 start, just know that we’ve reached the point where one of their in-house broadcasters is publicly lecturing Ronald Acuña Jr.
One of MLB’s more disappointing teams so far this season saw an internal feud emerge with a single tweet over the weekend. The quick version is Braves outfielder Jarred Kelenic got thrown out after not running on what he thought was a homer, but wasn’t benched for lack of hustle by Braves manager Brian Snitker.
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Snitker has, however, benched Acuña for similar plays multiple times in the past. The former MVP, who has not played this season as he continues to rehab a torn ACL, responded to the manager defending Kelenic by tweeting “If it were me, they would take me out of the game.”
The tweet was quickly deleted, but its impact was still being felt Tuesday when team broadcaster Jeff Francoeur went off on an extended rant about the reaction from both Acuña and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, via Awful Announcing:
“There are 26 guys in that locker room that are busting their ass every single day. Every single day,” he said on The Jeff Francoeur Show on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network. “And they are taking crap from, let’s be honest, all of us, all of national media. This team’s a let down. They were the second-best pick to win the World Series and all this. And those guys are trying their butts off every single day. You finally get something going in your direction. And you got a guy who’s supposed to be your teammate, tweeting, probably out in LA, something that is completely meaningless and stupid.
Francoeur played six seasons for the Braves in his 12-year MLB career and has been calling games for the team since 2017, with additional postseason work for TBS.
He specifically took issue with a column from Rosenthal published Monday with the headline “In calling out Brian Snitker’s double standard, Ronald Acuña Jr. had a point.” He called the column “the dumbest article I’ve ever seen” and proceeded to defend Snitker, note Acuña’s history of not hustling and reveal Kelenic spent a half-hour crying in Snitker’s office.
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Again, via Awful Announcing:
“Let’s get context here first. Anything to do with racism on this, that Brian Snitker has been in baseball 50 years. I saw him weep at Hank Aaron’s funeral, for God’s sake. He was the most influential man in that man’s life. I don’t even want to hear it.
“And you want to go farther with context, Ron Acuña was warned time after 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. Now, real quick, do I think Snit’s answer to it was great? Probably not. Probably not. He probably also didn’t expect after winning two games a row, this is what he was going to be talking about.
“And also, to give you context, Jarred Kelenic was sitting in that man’s office Easter Sunday morning waiting for him for 30 minutes crying and apologizing. So there’s your context on that.
“Number three, Ronald basically buried a teammate. This wouldn’t have been a national story. Y’all probably wouldn’t even talked about it Monday. Okay, right? Let’s be honest. If he did not mention it in a tweet and bring it to the forefront. So not only that, you buried a teammate by tweeting about this.”
On that last point, we’re just going to note that due to Francoeur’s words, national outlets such as this one are now covering this matter on a Tuesday, because Francoeur is a team employee jumping into what was already an ugly situation for Atlanta, on the team’s own radio network.
Ronald Acuña Jr. hasn’t played a game for the Braves this season. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
It’s also worth noting Rosenthal himself literally wrote “Snitker vociferously defended Acuña when the Miami Marlins repeatedly drilled him in 2018.” Francoeur, however, acted as if that fact were forgotten:
“And if you all want to even more context, let’s go back to 2019. We all remember when the Marlins hit Ronald about 10 times. You all remember the beanball war? I didn’t see many players out there sticking up for it. Who was the first guy out of the dugout about to rip up? What was that guy’s name. I totally forget his name. But you all remember. Snit was the first one out there. He came onto the field, yelling at that guy to back up his player. And man, how do you forget that so quick in six years that your manager is the one out there.
None of this is what the Braves needed with the team tied for last place in the NL East. They still have enough talent that the playoffs should be within their grasp, but you usually don’t see stuff like this when everything is going well.
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