With the start of the MLB season hours away, an unusual series of events broke surrounding the relationship between former Atlanta Braves teammates Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman.
The initial report was that in an IG Live interview on Wednesday, Acuña said that he “won’t miss” Freeman, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the offseason. Yancen Pujols, who the interview was with, confirmed the reports in no uncertain terms.
Can confirm 👇 https://t.co/lA7DGHPiie
— Yancen Pujols (@YancenPujols) April 7, 2022
That drew a big response from Braves fans.
God I can’t wait for Ronald to bat flip a walk off against the Dodgers https://t.co/Qp2tuBCtbW
— Benjy 🍊🪓 (@benjyvol) April 7, 2022
Acuña is the star of this team and is the future of the Atlanta Braves. This makes me like the fact that Freddie isn’t playing for the #Braves going forward. Apparently, Freddie wasn’t the clubhouse leader we all thought he was. https://t.co/D8dx8E0f5d
— Chop Oñ (@13ChopOn13) April 7, 2022
https://twitter.com/CooperGraham99/status/1511932526805204992
Given that the interview was done in Spanish and translated, there was natural skepticism — which was addressed.
There seems to be a lot of skepticism and that's perfectly fine. I verified this with two separate Spanish speaking users that I have known for quite a while. The r/Braves thread is here: https://t.co/n6cZCf5gBO
— Baseball GIFs (@gifs_baseball) April 7, 2022
That appears to be pretty conclusive. Only in this case, appearances are deceiving. There’s one big problem. While Pujols and two different “Spanish speaking users” might have confirmed the reports, a third — Acuña himself — outwardly rejected them.
I NEVER SAY THAT 🤡🤡🤡
— Ronald Acuña Jr. (@ronaldacunajr24) April 7, 2022
That seems even more conclusive.
There’s always a possibility of things getting lost in translation when different languages are being spoken. But Acuña is conclusively saying that those words never left his mouth. There’s always a middle-ground option but right now, it sounds like someone is lying. And given that it’s a published interview, the lie will be pretty easy to debunk.
It will be interesting the hear the continued fallout of these reports.
[Baseball GIFs, Yancen Pujols, Ronald Acuña Jr.]
