Braves legend hits back at Ronald Acuna Jr. after Brian Snitker drama

Amidst all of their struggles as a ball club, the Atlanta Braves have found new ways to hit the headlines. Injury-embattled star Ronald Acuna Jr. released a controversial statement that involved skipper Brian Snitker.

In a now-deleted post on social media, Acuna Jr. criticized Snitker for the way he acted during Saturday night's game against the Minnesota Twins. After Snitker's lack of reaction when Jarred Kelenic was thrown out at second base after admiring a ball that would eventually be short of the fence, Acuna tweeted:

"If it were me, they would take me out of the game."

Braves legend John Smoltz shared his thoughts on the situation on baseball personality Ben Verlander's podcast. He called out Acuna for creating unnecessary issues within the ball club.

"There's no place to make that claim. You made an emotional claim that probably had to get deleted, which it did. You deal with that differently, you learn how to deal with it [as] we all make mistakes," said Smoltz. (4:50-5:10)

"To say something like that to create more drama that was dealt with a long time ago, obviously still bothers Ronald Acuna Jr."(5:10-5:23)

Smoltz further backed skipper Brian Snitker's action (lack thereof) when Jarred Kelenic made the blunder during the contest against the Twins. The former Cy Young winner elaborated that the handling of such instances should be a case-by-case basis and not generalized for all players in a ball club.

"A manager has to do things at times to make a difference in a player's life when he thinks that it's time for it. This is not apples and apples. If Kelenic would have done it four or five different times, I guarantee you, this scenario would have been the same." (4:13-4:34)

Braves ace Spencer Strider hits injury list after one start

After just one start back from a UCL surgery in April 2024, Braves ace Spencer Strider has once again hit the injury list with a right hamstring issue.

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Strider made his return from a year-long layoff on April 16 against the Blue Jays in Toronto. He pitched five innings of two-run ball on five base hits with one walk and five strikeouts. Despite a seemingly solid outing on paper, Strider incurred the loss as the Braves could produce just one run in a 3-1 contest on the road.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago