ATLANTA — Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. acknowledged an inside rift with former teammate Freddie Freeman throughout an interview late Wednesday, saying there’s “nothing” that he’d miss in regards to the first baseman.
On Thursday, nevertheless, Acuna stated these feedback had been “made a spectacle of,” whereas Freeman stated your complete state of affairs was “unfortunate.”
Acuna, talking in Spanish to Dominican Republic-based sports activities reporter Yancen Pujols late Wednesday evening on Instagram Reside, was requested what he’d miss most about Freeman, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers final month after the Braves had traded for Matt Olson.
“Me?” Acuna responded to the query. “Nothing.”
Acuna was then requested if he had been shut with Freeman over the previous 4 seasons with the Braves, who’re coming off a World Sequence championship.
“We were close in that we shared the same stadium,” Acuna stated, “but we had a lot of, how do you say …”
“Lots of clashes,” Pujols interrupted.
“Lots of clashes,” Acuna stated, nodding.
Acuna, who continues to be recovering from an ACL harm suffered final season and is on the harm checklist, tried downplay the feedback earlier than Thursday evening’s opener towards the Cincinnati Reds.
“To be honest, I think it was just exaggerated and blown out of proportion by the media,” Acuna stated by way of translator Franco Garcia on Thursday. “I didn’t say anything bad about [Freeman]. I didn’t disrespect him. … I talked about what happened in 2018. That was in the past.”
Acuna added later: “He never controlled me. He has a life and I have a life.”
In line with the interview on Wednesday evening, the crux of Acuna’s points with Freeman, a five-time All-Star and the 2020 Nationwide League MVP, stemmed from disagreements with clubhouse guidelines through the 2018 season, when Acuna was a rookie.
“When you come up as a rookie, there’s always someone who [wants to tell you how to do things],” Acuna stated. “You come up from the minor leagues with the big eye black, the sunglasses, the hat low, and a lot of people see that as wrong. And the other person doesn’t see it as wrong because it’s part of the game.
“Plenty of veterans [picked on me] after I was a rookie, they usually known as me into the workplace themselves and informed me: ‘No, you possibly can’t use that.’ They usually took [the eye black] off me with a towel like that. And I stated, ‘OK, that is fantastic.'”
Pujols then asked Acuna if he stayed quiet.
“Yeah, after all. I am unable to say something, you realize?” Acuna said. “I simply stated, ‘Someday I will be a veteran.’ I am not saying I am a veteran proper now, however no one’s going to take the attention black off my face now, you realize?”
Freeman on Thursday told MLB Network that as a veteran, he was just trying to enforce the same “organizational guidelines” that he had to comply with as a younger player and that he never viewed any “friction or clashes” with Acuna during their time together as teammates.
“I noticed the attention black state of affairs,” Freeman told MLB Network about Acuna’s comments from Wednesday night. “While you placed on a Braves uniform … In that group, there’s organizational guidelines: You do not cowl the ‘A’ [on your hat] along with your sun shades, you do not put on earrings, you’ve gotten your hair a sure size, you put on a uniform throughout BP, you do not have eye black coming down throughout your complete face.
“Those are just organizational things. So I guess I was one of the older guys that did have to enforce those things in the clubhouse. But when you put on a Braves uniform, those are kind of what happens there.”
Braves supervisor Brian Snitker stated he wasn’t conscious of any battle between Acuna and Freeman, “and if there was, it was between those two.”
When requested Thursday if he regretted saying that he would not miss Freeman, Acuna stated he did not.
“I don’t regret it,” Acuna stated Thursday. “He signed with another team. He asked me what I would miss about him. What should I miss about someone who’s on another team?”
Freeman, in the meantime, stated in any other case.
“I loved Ronald. I still love Ronald. I’m going to miss Ronald. My family is going to miss Ronald,” Freeman informed MLB Community. “And I can’t wait for him to get on the field again because the game of baseball needs him.
“… It is unlucky that he considered it like that, however we had been at all times informed, you placed on a Braves uniform, you are purported to act slightly in another way, maintain your self slightly in another way. And I simply tried to uphold these guidelines nearly as good as I may.”
Freeman and the Dodgers open the season on the Colorado Rockies on Friday.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez contributed to this report.
