Heartbreaking: Ronald Acuña Jr Just Passed Away At the Aged of 29….see..more…..
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 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 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. He also pulled Ender Inciarte for 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.
Snitker vociferously defended Acuña when the Miami Marlins repeatedly drilled him in 2018. He continued playing Ozuna when many Braves fans booed him and wanted him released during his slow start to the 2023 season. And those are just two examples.
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 the past two days.
Consider what Snitker said after benching Acuña, then the reigning NL 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.
“You can’t do that. We’re trying to accomplish and do something special here, and personal things have to be put on the back burner. You just can’t let your team down like that.”
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, batting .180, 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.
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