Ryan Braun on shorter spring training: We’re not ‘paid by the hour’

Ryan Braun is not exactly helping his public image with quotes like these.

Braun on Thursday ripped spring training for being too long, and he did not mince words.

More gold from Ryan Braun on the Spring Training-is-too-long front: pic.twitter.com/mTMPO5tT7f

— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) March 16, 2017

Yes, that’s Ryan Braun, who makes $19 million a season, complaining that players don’t get paid by the hour.

This isn’t the first time Braun has gone down this road.

Braun has battled injuries and not played in a full season in any of the past three years. He says he only needs about one or two weeks of preparation to be ready for a season, and anything more is a waste for him.

“I need Spring Training. I need a week of Spring Training,” Braun said in February, via MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. “I just don’t need at-bats to feel ready for games. A week or two. Just run around, be in cleats for five or six hours every day. I need to throw every day, take some fly balls and get some routes, take some fly balls off the bat. I need to take batting practice every day. I need to do all of those things, but I’ve never felt like I needed a ton of at-bats in Spring Training.”

Braun also takes a less is more approach during the regular season and sometimes doesn’t even take batting practice if he’s feeling good, so this isn’t exactly new. But phrasing things the way he did makes him come off like nothing short of a jerk, especially to those who love baseball — like fans and other players — not to mention the guys who would kill for playing time in the spring.

According to Baseball-Reference, Braun has made $64.5 million during his career. That’s not bad for a player who infamously lied about his PED use and served a suspension.