Former Braves player piles on Ronald Acuna Jr. for pointing out double standard

That prompted Acuna to reply on social media pointing out that if he had been guilty of the same play, he would have been benched for it. 

In fact, Acuna had previously been benched for a nearly identical play in 2019 by Snitker.  That social media post by Acuna has since been deleted. 

None of that sat well with Francoeur (you can listen to it all here).

Along with saying that Acuna's criticism was "meaningless and stupid," he attempted to add additional context by saying that Kelenic was in Snitker's office on Easter Sunday crying over his mistake, and that Acuna had been warned, in Francoeur's words, "10 times" about not running before he was finally benched back in 2019. 

He also downplayed Snitker's response to the Kelenic question by saying it was "probably not" great, and that he likely didn't expect to be answering questions like that after a win, while shifting all of the blame to Acuna and the media for making it a distraction. 

He finished with this:

“And let me say this. Ronald Acuna is the most talented player, probably, to ever wear a Braves uniform. There is no denying that. There’s things he can do that nobody else can do. But the first thing I preach on our podcast, 'Pure Athlete,' is what? Be a good teammate. Be a good teammate. You’re making millions of dollars. You’re getting to play a kid’s game. Be a good teammate and pull for your team.”

He also made sure to point out that the Braves won a World Series without Acuna when he was sidelined with a different knee injury a few years ago.

There is a lot to unpack with all of that.

It's also interesting that Francoeur suddenly had all of the additional context of Kelenic's response on Sunday, as well as the information that Acuna had been warned several times, just in time for his radio show to go on this rant. 

Could Acuna have handled his criticism behind closed doors? Probably. 

Should he have? That's certainly up for debate. 

But he is entitled to his feelings, and if his effort is going to be publicly questioned and criticized (as it was in 2019 by Snitker when he was benched), he should have the opportunity to point out apparent double standards when other players get away with the exact same thing.