They should have all had to know better. Jarred Kelenic should have worked hard. Brian Snitker should have put him in the bench. And Ronald Acuña Jr. should have been addressed to the internal double standard rather than taking to say: “If it was me, they would withdraw from the game.”
Acuña, who is not with the brave of Atlanta while recovering from a torn left ACL, then deleted his post. The problem for Snitker, a very successful manager and brave Lifer, is that his right field player Star has essentially declared a fact.
Snitker withdrew Acuña from a match in August 2019 for the same offense that Kelenic committed on Saturday evening – not to have run hard on a fly ball out of the hitting box, he thought he was a home run. He also pulled Ender Inciarte for lack of agitation in July 2018 and Marcell Ozuna for a similar misstep in June 2023.
These three players are Latin. Kelenic is white, just like Snitker, who is 69 years old. Inevitably, some will see it only through the objective of the race. We cannot know with certainty how much the role that played. In the game, Snitker is held in high esteem, partly because of his feeling for players, as attesting Acuña and Ozuna.
Snitker defended Acuña to Acuña when the Miami Marlins pierced him several times in 2018. He continued to play Ozuna when many fans of brave hunted him and wanted him to go out during his slow start in the 2023 season. And these are only two examples.
However, just as players make mistakes, managers too. And Snitker was barely distinguished from his failure at Kélenic bench and his weak answers to journalists’ questions on the incident in the last two days.
Consider what Snitker said after having bench of Acuña, then the recruit of the title year of the NL, in 2019:
“He did not run. You have to run. It will not be acceptable here. As a teammate, you are responsible for 24 other guys. This name on the front is much more important than the name at the back of this jersey.
“You can’t do this. We are trying to do and do something special here, and personal things should be put on the backstil. You just can’t drop your team like that.”
Snitker should have adopted the same position with Kelenic, a player in difficulty who presented a much easier target than Acuña, a future MVP, in 2019. Kelenic, beating .180, was the subject of the frustration of the fans. He could very well be the player sent to Triple A when Acuña joins the Braves, perhaps in early May.
Instead, Snitker created an opening for the team’s franchise player to question him. This controversy, like most fueled by social media, could very well have a short shelf life. But the problem raised by Acuña is the genre that could expose a flaw in a team that is almost a Latin third.
Most of the teams, the brave inclusive, managed to mix different cultures. Most teams also experience occasional tensions. Finding the appropriate balance on a six -month and 162 game season can question the most well -intentioned.
Snitker regularly praises his very behavior and stable leadership. Coming from the Bobby Cox school, he generally prefers to manage questions sensitive to behind closed doors. This time, however, he looked disconnected. And in the short term, timing could not be worse.
The conference around the Braves should be how they won consecutive matches for the first time this season on Friday and Saturday, and finished their minnesota twins scan on Sunday. The conversation around Snitker, so far, concerned if he would retire at the end of the season, his 49th in the organization of Atlanta.
Snitker said he would consider him. It is unlikely that the brave people are dismissing it, and they should not either, because he blew it up in Kelenic. Snitker led the Braves to six consecutive crowns of the 2018 NL division to 23, seven consecutive appearances in the playoffs and the title of the World Series 2021. You simply do not throw it.
As Snitker rightly noticed on Sunday, there are not two situations of lack of obstacles. Although Snitker did not say it explicitly, some otherwise all its previous benches result from an accumulation of basic streams. From Kelenic, who joined the Braves last season, Snitker said: “I’m not trying him not to (run hard) because he plays with his hair on fire all the time.”
Snitker, in fact, said that he was not even looking at the play, which seems difficult to believe, given that Kelenic crossed directly to the Brave canoe while running first. The replay was shown on the Trist Park video board. No one in the Braves canoe attracted him to the attention of Snitker? Or was the whole team unconscious?
What Kelenic did was not so unusual. Practically every night, players fail to run hard on the shot balls. Singles that should be doubles are not always noticed. When they are, the teams often approach the question internally. The difference with Kelenic is that he was thrown into a match equally in sixth round. Cannot happen.
Snitker, asked after the match if he had spoken to Kelenic, replied: “Was I supposed to do so?” He said that after Sunday’s match, he only saw the game that morning and then talked about it with Kelenic. Kelenic, interesting, said he was the one who had initiated the discussion, explaining: “It’s my action, so I don’t need him to call me.”
“I have to be in the second goal,” said Kelenic. “There is no excuse for that.”
Presumably, a conversation between Snitker and Acuña is to come, if that has not already happened. Acuña, in rehabilitation in Florida, will join the team early enough. Snitker said he was aware of the Acuña post and that he had been withdrawn.
Acuña, after her bench in 2019, made the same mistake two months later in match 1 of the division series against the Cardinals of Saint-Louis, admiring a fly ball and not passing for second place. Snitker did not dare to withdraw it from an eliminatory match, one in which Acuña went 3-in-4 with a double circuit, two points and Run catches. But after the fall of the Braves, 7-6, Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies and Brian McCann openly criticized their teammate. The brave people ended up losing the series, three games for two.
Acuña was 21 years old at the time. He is 27 years old now, married to two sons. The general consensus around the brave in recent seasons was that he has matured, as most young players do.
His article on X, like numerous reactions on social networks, was carried out in the heat of the moment. But if there is one thing that players hate managers, it is an inconsistency. Snitker was incompatible with Kelenic. Acuña can be forgiven for having tabled an objection.
(Top photo of Acuña and Snitker in March 2024: Images Bill Streicher / Imagn)
