It’s not a good start to the season for the Atlanta Braves. Heading into Sunday, they sit last in the National League East with a 7-13 record and lost their big free-agent signing Jurickson Profar to an 80-game PED suspension. Now, they’re dealing with clubhouse turmoil as former NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. has called out manager Brian Snitker over his response to a player’s lack of hustle.
During Saturday’s 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins, Braves outfielder Jarred Kelenic crushed a pitch deep to right. Instead of running out of the box, Kelenic admired it, thinking it was his third home run of the season. However, the ball hit off the wall and the .170 hitter was thrown out at second base.
Jarred Kelenic so busy admiring his hit — a wall-ball he clearly thought was a bomb — that he ran into the first out in the middle of a rally in a tie game. Braves should sit him the rest of the game. Busch League. pic.twitter.com/qJRboJz3r8
— Sloan Piva (@SloanPiva) April 20, 2025
Despite the blunder, Braves manager Brian Snitker didn’t pull Kelenic from the game. When pressed afterward if he said anything to Kelenic, Snitker responded, “Was I supposed to?”
That response drew the ire of Acuña.
“If it were me, they would have taken me out of the game,” Acuña said in a now-deleted post on X.
Context: Jarred Kelenic was thrown out at second last night after admiring a ball out of the box.
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 20, 2025
Ronald Acuña Jr. chimes in… pic.twitter.com/k9xpJFPT3r
Acuña has grounds to call out Snitker over the apparent double standard. The identical situation happened to the four-time All-Star during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019, when he admired a ball he thought was a home run instead of running out of the box, settling for a long single. Snitker removed Acuña from that game.
“He didn’t run. You’ve got to run,” Snitker said of Acuña after that game, via The Associated Press. “It’s not going to be acceptable here. As a teammate, you’re responsible for 24 other guys. That name on the front is a lot more important than the name on the back of that jersey. You can’t do that. We’re trying to accomplish something and do something special here and personal things have got to be put on the backburner. You just can’t let your team down like that.”
Ronald Acuña Jr. was benched by Brian Snitker in 2019 for the exact same thing.pic.twitter.com/XmFZkKSXuH https://t.co/yN14Gd1q1v
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 20, 2025
But Snitker didn’t send a message to Kelenic or the team this time around. Now, the manager has a clubhouse issue to resolve with his star outfielder. Acuña is expected to return to the lineup next month after recovering from a torn ACL suffered last year.
