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A major baseball beef controversy erupted late Wednesday night and early Thursday when Braves star Ronald Acuna revealed there was bad blood between him and beloved Freddie Freeman. The comments reportedly came during an Instagram Live conducted in Spanish.
The Braves outfielder appeared on Instagram Live with reporter Yancen Pujols, who has since confirmed the translation of the interview.
“Ronald Acuña Jr. was just on IG Live and according to our resident bilingual r/Braves user, he said: – He won’t miss Freddie Freeman. – They had friction. – Freeman didn’t care when he was plunked. – He was overbearing. – He wasn’t someone Ronald could talk to ever,” Twitter account Baseball GIFs wrote Wednesday night.
Thursday morning, Acuna started his Opening Day by denying the translation. “I NEVER SAY THAT [clown emojis],” Acuna tweeted back to the GIFs account.
I NEVER SAY THAT 🤡🤡🤡
— Ronald Acuna Jr (@ronaldacunajr24) April 7, 2022
And now there’s officially a fight between Braves fans who support their star and those who confirm what Acuna was saying on the chat.
Baseball reporter Hector Gomez is one of those who translated what he heard on that chat.
"I won't miss Freddie Freeman. We had friction, he didn't care when I was plunked. Freddie was overbearing and he wasn't someone I could talk to ever", Ronald Acuña Jr. on Freddie Freeman in an interview with @YancenPujols. pic.twitter.com/Nzc991i94t
— Héctor Gómez (@hgomez27) April 7, 2022
Reporter Yancen Pujols, who conducted the interview, added even more context early Thursday morning. “Ronald said he won’t miss Freddie Freeman, said he wasn’t nice to him in his rookie year and even talked about the rookie hazing. The hit by pitch stuff was something I mentioned first,” Pujols tweeted.
No matter where you fall in this argument between former teammates, this is exactly the drama Major League Baseball needs heading into a new season. The analytics nerds in baseball won’t like this drama because they won’t be able to run stat computer calculations on how to run shifts, but screw them!
We want drama and Acuna-Freeman is officially a huge pile of drama considering Freeman took off for Los Angeles and a six-year, $162 million contract. Acuna, who is recovering from a torn ACL, hopes to rejoin the Braves in May. The Dodgers roll into Atlanta for a three-game series June 24-26.
Let’s certainly hope Acuna didn’t say that. I would hope watching his team win a World Series without him would introduce a much needed helping of humble pie. Let’s assume that, because a crack back block on Freddy Freeman should never come from Ronald Acuna. A minimum requirement to qualify for that privilege is being a player who at least knows to run out fly balls in playoff games.
BUT Acuna DID NOT Slap Freeman for making a joke about his wife ….. and neither Coach K nor Tiger Woods are part of this story … right?
Acuna sounds like someone who’s looking for attention. Not all teammates get along all the time. Wish Freddie would have stayed, but this is the nature of the business.