Flying high off their first series sweep of the season the Atlanta Braves should be celebrating the highest vibes of 2025 thus far. However, a sour mood was cast over the Braves' locker room just a couple hours before the game when franchise player Ronald Acuna Jr. implied manager Brian Snitker had double standards for certain players when it came to discipline.
The since deleted tweet from Acuna Jr. was a response to Snitker's nonchalant comments about Jared Kelenic getting thrown at second base out after admiring a ball off the right field wall. Acuna Jr. claimed that if that had been him, he would have been benched for the lack of hustle.
The tweet had the baseball world buzzing throughout the afternoon, so much so that it was immediately brought up to Snitker in the Braves postgame press conference. That's when Snitker went into damage control mode and tried his best to extinguish the flames Acuna's post had created.
Braves' Brian Snitker tried to clear the air when it came to discipline for Kelenic and Acuna Jr.
It was twice in 2019, including game one of the NLDS, where Acuna had similar lack of hustle blunder to what Jarred Kelenic did on Saturday night. Acuna was benched for his mistake in the regular season, and then faced backlash from Snitker and many of his teammates for repeating the mistake in the postseason.
Slugger Marcell Ozuna was benched for the same mistake in June of 2023. But when Kelenic's blunder not only cost the Braves a base, but an out on Saturday night, Kelenic mysteriously remained in the game. The reason...Brian Snitker didn't see it happen.
In the postgame conference on Sunday, Snitker said he didn't see the play in question from Kelenic. The Braves manager said that he knows Kelenic for "playing with his hair on fire." Atlanta's manager told reporters that he was informed of Acuna's tweet as he was walking into the dugout for Sunday's game. He followed by saying all he knows is it's since been taken down, and he had yet to speak to Acuna Jr. about it.
Snitker also made the remark that each baserunning incident was different in it's own way. When asked what makes each incident different Snitker cut off the reporter and said "It’s just timing and everything," and claimed there is no one way to handle all of these situations.
One has to wonder where things go from here as many fans are in superstar Ronald Acuna Jr.'s corner, and we grow ever closer to Acuna's return from injury. A disgruntled Acuna Jr. and prolonged team slump would likely be enough for many fans to wish for the Braves to move on from Snitker as manager. Although the Braves are on their longest winning streak of the season, things around the team couldn't be cloudier. Now fans await how the team handles this latest incident, and what Brian Snitker or Ronald Acuna Jr. have to say next.