Atlanta Braves News: Jarred Kelenic didn’t hustle out of the box on a ball he hit off the right field wall and was thrown out at second base. Ronald Acuna Jr. seemingly took a shot at manager Brian Snitker, replying to Mark Bowman’s tweet by saying “If it were me, they would take me out of the game.”
In this post, we will breakdown what was said, context behind Acuna’s tweet, perspectives, and perhaps the confusion that might have started this all.
So, let’s figure out what happened and who is to blame for this mess.
Table of Contents
Acuna’s Tweet That Started The Controversy
Kelenic Gets Thrown Out at Second After Not Hustling
Let’s take a look at what Kelenic did to start all of this.
Acuna’s Lack of Hustle in 2019 Gets Him Benched
Now, let’s go back in time to 2019 to take a look at what Acuna did to get benched. In August of 2019 against the Dodgers, Acuna blasted a ball off the right field wall and had to settle for a single after watching the ball like he hit a homer.
ESPN’s Breakdown of the Kelenic/Acuna Situation
Brian Snitker’s Initial Remarks Made Everything Worse
After the game, Brian Snitker was asked if he had said anything to Kelenic after watching that ball hit off the wall.
“Was I supposed to? Okay,” said the Braves manager.
Snit’s response made its sound like he didn’t care – or didn’t think it was a big deal. That, ironically, seemed to have made it a big deal. That statement was apparently enough to prompt Acuña’s tweet.
It turns out, Snit had not seen Kelenic’s lack of hustle. Kelenic had to come to Snit the next morning and took it upon himself to apologize for his mistake.
Why would this have made Acuna upset? Because he was benched for not hustling — and this situation appeared to be handled with far more leniency.
Acuna Deletes Tweet One Hour After Posting It
We don’t know if someone with the Braves reached out to Acuña, or if he just needed time to cool off, but he deleted the post an hour later. Good thing, too. Now no one will ever know about it… right?
Perhaps Acuña learned Snitker wasn’t “protecting” Kelenic as Bowman had speculated — he simply hadn’t seen the play.
Snit Says Kelenic Does Not Have History of a Lack of Hustling
Snitker:
“Quite honestly, I don’t look for him to not do – cause he plays with his hair on fire all the time and he’s layin’ out.”
Kelenic may not have had a history (with the Braves) for lack of hustling but he does now.
Acuna Wasn’t the First Player Snit Benched for Not Hustling
Snit had set a precedent for benching a player who didn’t hustle when he pulled Ender Inciarte the prior year in 2018. Inciarte hit a grounder to Brewers shortstop Tyler Saladino and he bobbled it. Inciarte, who did not hustle out of the box, was still thrown out at first.
When he did it to Acuña — then one of the best players in baseball — it sent a louder message.
Did Acuna Have a History of Not Hustling Leading Up to 2019 Benching?
Jeff Francouer unleashed his anger toward Acuna in an interview on 680 The Fan yesterday. Here are the bullet points to summarize what he said.
- Making a Bad Season Worse: Acuna’s comments add controversy on top of the criticism for the team’s slow start.
- Bad Teammate: “And you got a guy who’s supposed to be your teammate, tweeting, probably out in LA, something that is completely meaningless and stupid.”
- Not About Race: Snit isn’t a racist.
- Warned Repeatedly: Acuña had been warned “like 10 times” before the benching.
- Public Call-Out: Acuña buried his teammate.
I couldn’t find prior specific examples before the August Dodgers game — but Freeman’s post-NLDS comments are telling.
Freeman on Acuña’s second 2019 incident in the NLDS:
“Yeah, it’s frustrating, but I think you have that conversation once. It’s kind of beating a dead horse after that if you keep having the same conversation over and over again. You have to know that was a mistake.”
It’s unclear if Freeman was just referring to the incident in which Acuna was pulled from the August game against the Dodgers, or even more conversations they had behind closed doors.
I cannot say with certainty how many times the dead horse was beaten.
One thing is for sure, Frenchy went on the radio and complained that Acuna created a distraction for his struggling team, but Frenchy’s own words added fuel to the fire.
Acuna Was Buried by His Teammates After 2019 NLDS
Acuna failed to run out a ball off the right field wall in the 2019 NLDS, about a month and a half after his benching against the Dodgers. ESPN’s Jesse Rogers wrote an article covering the postseason incident and the first sentence said “It happened again and this time it was in a postseason game.”
Acuna hit a 355-foot flyball off the right field wall. Everyone thought the ball was gone, including Acuna. Dexter Fowler got it in quickly and held Acuna to a single. He would get doubled off shortly after on a Josh Donaldson lineout. The Braves were winning 3-1 at the time and who is to say he wouldn’t have been doubled off of second on that lineout?
Acuna blasted a two-run jack in the ninth inning to make it a two-run game with nobody out. He gave the Braves a chance at a comeback. Freeman followed Acuna with a solo homer to make it a one-run game in the ninth.
Acuna finished with three hits, a walk, a homer, and two RBI.
Acuna also robbed Kolten Wong of a base hit on this nice sliding catch.
Acuna really had a great game. You could argue he was the primary reason the Braves were in this game. However, at the end of the day, all anyone wanted to talk about was his running gaffe in the seventh inning.
Brian Snitker on Acuna Not Hustling
Snit said “He should have been on second. We’re kind of short-handed to do anything about it right there. You hate to see that.”
Had Snit taken Acuna out of that game for not hustling on a ball that was a few feet from clearing the wall, Acuna wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make it close in the ninth inning with his 455-foot homer.
Freddie Freeman on Acuna Not Hustling
Freddie Freeman was quoted: “Yeah, it’s frustrating, but I think you have that conversation once. It’s kind of beating a dead horse after that if you keep having the same conversation over and over again. You have to know that was a mistake.”
“That can’t happen in the playoffs. Can’t happen in the regular season. Unfortunately that happened tonight.”
Ozzie Albies on Acuna Not Hustling
Ozzie Albies said “A couple guys told him, ‘Yeah, just run out of the box. It’s something you should do.”
“He had a chance to kill the inning,” Albies said, according to USA Today. “We probably score in that inning if he’s at second base. It was a big chance in a tight ballgame.”
Brian McCann on Acuna Not Hustling
Brian McCann said: “That can’t happen. That’s something that you got to take the extra base. Ninety feet this time of year is everything.”
Why Was Snit Apathetic About Kelenic’s Lack of Hustle Compared to Acuna and Inciarte?
Kelenic showed immense potential as a prospect, but he has struggled at the major league level. His career OPS+ of 84 over parts of five seasons. That’s 16% below the average major-league OPS over that time.
The Braves are already thin at outfield this season as they await Acuna’s return and with Profar suspended 80 games. We’ve seen a large sampling of Jarred Kelenic, Bryan De La Cruz, and Stuart Fairchild.
Kelenic is hitting .172 on the season and honestly, maybe Snit didn’t see Kelenic’s slow trot out of the box because he was in shock Kelenic had a hard hit.
Maybe Acuna’s manager and teammates were a little too tough on the kid back in 2019. Acuna probably shouldn’t have created a firestorm by tweeting his still-hurt feelings over the situation. It did take away from the excitement of a winning streak for the struggling Braves.
Acuna tried to take it down but the damage was done.
Hopefully, Acuna merely had a knee-jerk reaction to what appeared to be a double standard. It wasn’t just Acuna who was benched for one instance of not hustling, Ender Inciarte suffered the same fate the year before.
He probably wasn’t wrong, either.
Kelenic should have been benched for the sake of consistency.
Who We Should Actually Blame for Acuna/Kelenic Hustling Controversy
Mark Bowman.
I’m having a little fun, of course since there is blame to go around to all parties.
- Kelenic should have hustled.
- Snit should have been paying attention.
- Snit should have benched Kelenic or had some harsh words for his lack of hustle after the game.
- Acuna shouldn’t have issued a public tweet to let his displeasure be known.
- Frenchy should not have criticized the Braves’ star player to protect Snit.
- Mark Bowman shouldn’t have indicated that Snit was protecting Kelenic.
I can’t help but wonder — if Bowman hadn’t mistaken Snit’s ignorance for protection, would Acuña have even responded? He may not have been upset if he hadn’t believed Snitker was favoring Kelenic over him.
Think about that. Acuna responded to a tweet that said Snit was protecting Kelenic. Of course, now we know Snit was ignorant of the situation, not necessarily protecting Kelenic as Mark Bowman stated in the tweet.
Acuna saw the tweet saying Snit protected a player who didn’t huslte out of the box and then he probably had a flashback to all the quotes from his teammates, Snitker taking him into the tunnel and benching him, Snit telling the media that it’s about the name on the front of the jersey and not the “Acuna” on the back, and even the benching of Inciarte the year before.
What? All of a sudden this guy is protecting a player for not hustling? He’s protecting this guy with a career 84 OPS+?
Maybe I do blame Mark Bowman.
Braves Fans Would Love to See Acuna Pimp A Single Off the Wall Right Now
The Braves are struggle-bussing this year without their former MVP. Since Acuna arrived, the Braves had not endured a five-game losing streak until after he blew out his knee last year. Since Acuna’s 2024 season ended, the Braves have had four five-game losing streaks and three six-game losing streaks.
Right now, I think we’d all agree we’d love to see Acuna pimp a single off the wall while amid a 40-homer season with a .400 on-base percentage.
Whose fault is all of this? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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