We Now Have to Decipher IG Stories After Brian Snitker Publicly Shit on Ronald Acuña, Because It Seems Like He's Not Too Happy About It
After Ronald Acuña Jr. was thrown out at third base with the potential tying run on-deck to end the Braves' 10-8 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday, Atlanta manager Brian Snitker got up in front of reporters after the game and did not mince words about the situation, calling Acuña's play "stupid."
And look, it was the wrong play. Acuña's run didn't mean anything and you have to give Freddie Freeman a chance to come up and at least get on base, if not tie the game. But Ronnie literally only knows how to play baseball at 100 percent all the time, and that has benefitted the Braves about 1,000 times more than it has cost them. So yeah, it was the wrong play, but you live with it because he's about the only reason you're not 18-47 right now.
And you sure as hell don't get up in a presser and say what Snitker said. That's just not how you treat your players. And by the way, you know what Snitker said when Dansby Swanson did almost the exact same thing a month ago?
Hmm.
And in case you were wondering how Acuña felt about being publicly shit on by his manager despite being far and away the best player on his team — at least right now with the way Freeman has struggled this season — he posted this Instagram story today.
Great. So now our best player is in a public dispute with his manager while the team is in a tailspin already. And it's all Snitker's fault, by the way. He's the one who chose to have this fight in the media, not Ronnie.
Look, Snitker was a great story when he got the job after so many years in the organization and did well enough to keep it and then took the Braves to the Postseason probably a year before they should have been there. But since 2018, he's proven to be much more of a hinderance than an asset and is now calling out his best player publicly instead of talking to him like an adult. The Braves scored eight runs last night, he should have talked about how atrocious his bullpen is if he was going to call out anybody.
The Braves have won the last two seasons in spite of Snitker, not because of him. And now they're not winning at all.
So if there are sides to be taken between the 65-year-old, sub-par manager and the NL MVP candidate, I'm taking the latter 11 times out of 10.