In calling out Brian Snitker’s double standard, Ronald Acuña Jr. had a point
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
By Ken Rosenthal / The Athletic
They all should have known better.
Jarred Kelenic should have run hard. Brian Snitker should have benched him. And Ronald Acuña Jr. should have addressed the double standard internally rather than taking to the social platform X to say, “If it were me, they would take me out of the game.”
Acuña, who is not with the Atlanta Braves while recovering from a torn left ACL, later deleted his post. The problem for Snitker, a highly successful manager and a Braves lifer, is that his star right fielder essentially stated a fact.
Snitker removed Acuña from a game in August 2019 for the same offense Kelenic committed Saturday night — failing to run hard on a fly ball out of the batter’s box he thought would be a home run. Snitker also pulled Ender Inciarte for a lack of hustle in July 2018 and Marcell Ozuna for a similar misstep in June 2023.
All three of those players are Latin. Kelenic is white, as is Snitker, who is 69. Inevitably, some will view this matter solely through the lens of race. We can’t know for sure how much of a role that played. Within the game, Snitker is held in high esteem, in part because of his feel for players, as both Acuña and Ozuna can attest.
Still, just as players make mistakes, so do managers. And Snitker hardly distinguished himself with his failure to bench Kelenic and his feeble responses to reporters’ questions about the incident.
Consider what Snitker said after benching Acuña, then the reigning National League rookie of the year, in 2019:
“He didn’t run. You’ve got to run. 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.”
Snitker should have taken the same stance with Kelenic, a struggling player who presented a much easier target than Acuña, a future MVP, did in 2019. Kelenic has been a subject of fan frustration. He very well could be the player sent to Triple-A when Acuña rejoins the Braves, possibly in early May.
Instead, Snitker created an opening for the team’s franchise player to question him. The issue raised by Acuña is the kind that might expose a rift in a team that is almost one-third Latin.
Most teams, the Braves included, are remarkably successful at blending different cultures. Most teams also experience occasional tensions. Striking the proper balance over a six-month, 162-game season can challenge even the best-intentioned.
Snitker routinely draws praise for his even demeanor and stable leadership. Coming from the Bobby Cox school, he generally prefers to handle sensitive matters behind closed doors. This time, though, he looked out of touch.
As Snitker correctly pointed out Sunday, no two lack-of-hustle situations are the same. Though Snitker didn’t say it explicitly, some if not all of his previous benchings resulted from an accumulation of baserunning lapses.
What Kelenic did actually was not all that unusual. Virtually every night, players fail to run hard on batted balls. Singles that should be doubles do not always get noticed. When they are, teams often address the matter internally. The difference with Kelenic is that he got thrown out in a game that was tied in the sixth inning. Can’t happen.
Snitker, asked after the game if he had spoken to Kelenic, replied, “Was I supposed to?” He said after Sunday’s game that he had not seen the play until that morning and talked about it with Kelenic then. Kelenic, interestingly enough, said he was the one who initiated the discussion, explaining, “It’s my action, so I don’t need him to call me in.”
“I’ve got to be on second base,” Kelenic said. “There’s no excuse for it.”
Acuña, after his benching in 2019, made the same mistake two months later in Game 1 of the Braves’ division series against the St. Louis Cardinals, admiring a fly ball and failing to advance to second. Snitker did not dare pull him from a playoff game, one in which Acuña went 3 for 4 with a double, a two-run homer and a run-saving catch. But after the Braves fell, 7-6, Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies and Brian McCann were openly critical of their teammate. The Braves wound up losing the series, three games to two.
Acuña was 21 then. He is 27 now. The consensus around the Braves in recent seasons was that he has matured, in the way most young players do.
His post on X, like many reactions on social media, was made in the heat of the moment. But if there’s one thing players detest in managers, it’s inconsistency. Snitker was inconsistent with Kelenic. Acuña can be forgiven for lodging an objection.