Freddie Freeman surprised by Ronald Acuña friction

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman was caught off guard by the suggestion from Ronald Acuña Jr. that they had friction in their relationship.

Freddie Freeman’s departure from Atlanta Braves was a blow for the organization at first. It’s taken a strange turn since then.

With Freeman now suiting up for the Dodgers, it feels like open season on him in one way or another.

Ronald Acuña Jr. opened a can of worms ahead of Opening Day when he allegedly told viewers on Instagram that he and Freeman didn’t exactly get along, going so far as to say he won’t miss the first baseman.

The Braves star has since tried to backtrack on his comments.

Freddie Freeman surprised by Ronald Acuña Jr. friction

Freeman has now had the chance to respond to the controversy and he seems taken aback by the characterization of their relationship.

“I’m going to miss Ronald, Charlie [Freeman’s son] is going to miss Ronald, my family is going to miss Ronald,” Freeman said on MLB Network. “That’s my side of it. I love Ronald Acuna and I can’t wait for him to get healthy and get on the field and I think he’s great for the game of baseball. It’s a talent that’s going to be something that’s talked about for 100 plus years because those kinds of talents don’t come around in this game.”

Freeman did address one specific allegation that he clashed with Freeman over his eye black and style.

“When you put on a Braves uniform in that organization, there’s organization rules,” Freeman explained. “You don’t cover the A with sunglasses, you don’t wear earrings, you have your hair a certain length, you wear a uniform during BP, you don’t have eye black coming down across your whole face.”

That is, surely, everything that’s wrong with baseball. The modern game ought to welcome that sort of personality and flare, rather than shy away from it. By forcing players to look or act one way over another, they’re merely perpetuating the same boring version of the old man’s sport that is slowly killing America’s game.

The first baseman gave his own anecdote of being corrected over organizational rules. In 2016 he was wearing a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes when someone in the organization told him he couldn’t wear tennis shoes on the road. He didn’t think of those fashionable shoes as “tennis shoes” but he took to wearing a pair of cowboy boots to fulfill the team’s requirement for shoes to have a heel.

“Those are just organizational things. I guess I was one of the older guys that did have to enforce those kinds of things in the clubhouse,” Freeman said. “…I didn’t view it as any friction or clashes or anything like that. I loved Ronald, I still love Ronald, I’m gonna miss Ronald.”