A former Atlanta Braves player had some sharp words for Ronald Acuña Jr. over Acuña’s recent social media post about manager Brian Snitker.
Longtime Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur was highly critical of Acuña and outright accused him of being a bad teammate due to his social media activity.
In a since-deleted social media post, Acuña was not happy after Snitker essentially gave outfielder Jarred Kelenic a pass for not running out a fly ball despite having benched Acuña for the same transgression in the past.
Francoeur argued that the two situations were not the same, and that Acuña was warned multiple times before ultimately being benched for lack of hustle. He was also not happy with Acuña for sounding off on social media while rehabbing an ACL injury.
“There are 26 guys in that locker room that are busting their a– every single day, and they are taking crap for all of us, all of the national media,” Francoeur said. “Those guys are trying their butts off every single day. You finally get something going in your direction, and you’ve got a guy who’s supposed to be your teammate tweeting, probably out in L.A., something that is completely meaningless and stupid. Where’s the tweet last week, stick in there, boys, let’s grind this thing out. Where is any of that?”
Francoeur also called out a column from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, which argued that Acuña had a point in calling out a perceived double standard. Francoeur referred to it as the “dumbest article I’ve ever seen,” and dismissed any insinuation that racism played a role in Snitker’s handling of the situations.
“You want to go farther with context? Ronald Acuña was warned time after time after time after time, like ten times, to run before he ever got yanked. This is the first time Jarred Kelenic’s ever done it,” Francoeur said. “Also, to give you context, Jarred Kelenic was sitting in that man’s office Easter Sunday morning waiting for him for 30 minutes crying and apologizing. So there’s your context on that.”
Francoeur also accused Acuña of “burying” Kelenic by making the post, which made the incident a national story when it otherwise would not have been.
Frenchy comments on the Ronald Acuña/Snit situation (from 680 The Fan) pic.twitter.com/L9LSZto0Vk
— Michael Harris II’s Headband (@ATLHeadband) April 22, 2025
Acuña airing his grievances in public turned a minor issue into a major one. Acuña was not necessarily wrong to feel the way he felt about a perceived double standard, but had he kept that issue in-house, there never would have been any public controversy about it.
It would be interesting to know if any of Acuña’s teammates feel similarly about the outfielder’s social media activity, since Francoeur essentially accused him of being a bad teammate.
Acuña is expected to return to Atlanta’s lineup sometime next month as he finishes up his rehab. Judging by this, he may have some apologies to make when he rejoins the team.
