Despite what fans intially thought, Ronald Acuña Jr. denied taking a shot at his former Braves manager, Brian Snitker on his podcast “La Bestia” this week.

During Monday’s episode of the podcast with Brewers stars William Contreras and Jackson Chourio, the former asked Acuña in Spanish about the Braves’ coaches and seemed to point to how things have been in the first season without Snitker — though the catcher didn’t name the manager.

“All good bro. They didn’t bother me again. You know that c–ksucker thought he was the king,” Acuña responded as reported by Phillip Feliz, a known Spanish-to-English athlete translator on X.

On Wednesday night after the Braves were eliminated by the Dodgers in the NLDS, the outfielder told The Athletic he did not take a swipe at Snitker in that moment. He declined to name the coach he was speaking about.

“I’m not going to violate that code,” he said via an interpreter. “We were just talking about the past, even things all the way back to the minor leagues.”

Before Acuña finished his next sentence on the podcast, Contreras began to say, “El gerente,” a term that means “manager” in Spanish, but it’s specifically used for a general manager rather than the skipper of a team.

The interpretation led to intense speculation that Acuña’s comment was directed at Snitker. Many questioned Feliz’s translation and went after him online.

Feliz later posted a video defending his translation of the podcast clip, insinuating the Braves questioned him directly.

“I want to make something clear. My job on social media is not to care for any MLB team’s reputation. Want me to care for your reputation? Hire me. Any MLB team, hire me. Reach out to me,” Feliz said on Tuesday morning in a video on X. “If I do that willingly on the timeline, I chose to. It’s not because I’m getting paid to. If you want to question my translations when you don’t even speak the language, you’re a fool.

“You want to question my work on X and question whether I’m a Dodgers spy playing 3D chess because I decided to drop this clip ahead of Game 3 against the Dodgers? You know what’s far more interesting? The fact that Ronald Acuña Jr. himself decided to drop this episode on their off day. Look it up. Their podcast, ‘La Bestia,’ dropped less than 24 hours ago. It wasn’t I fetching for clips to drop, he handed me the clip. As far as me trying to tarnish the Braves’ reputation, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: I’m rooting for the Braves this series. F–k the Dodgers.

“If you want to question my work on X when my posts get global reach, I need to ensure I’m posting with accuracy. If you believe heart to heart that Ronald Acuña Jr. wasn’t talking about Brian Snitker, go watch the interview [and] come back to me. Go watch the extended clip that I posted [and] come back to me.”

Acuña and Snitker, who held the manager role in Atlanta from 2017-25, had some friction throughout their lengthy time together that included six division titles and a World Series in 2021.

On Aug. 18, 2019 when a 21-year-old Acuña hit a ball to the right field wall against the Dodgers, he didn’t run hard out of the batter’s box and it only resulted in a single.

A frustrated Snitker pulled him from the game.

Similarly in 2025, Jarred Kelenic admired a long ball and was thrown out at second base for trying to stretch the hit against the Twins. When asked if Snitker talked to Kelenic about the decision, he said “Was I supposed to?”

Acuña, 28, who was rehabbing a torn ACL at the time, took to X to comment on the situation in a since-deleted post.

He wrote: “If it were me, they would take me out of the game.”

He later apologized to the manager and his teammates, deeming it a “moment of frustration.”

Following the 2025 season in which the Braves missed the playoffs, Snitker stepped down and moved on to hold a senior advisory role within the organization. Walt Weiss, Snitker’s longtime bench coach, replaced him and tried to push the team past the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Acuña had a quiet postseason, going 3-for-24 through seven games with no home runs nor RBIs. He had an OPS of .425.

It follows a regular season in which he hit .255 with 20 home runs and 55 RBIs across 107 games.

He has not hit a home run in the postseason since the 2020 NLDS against the Marlins. Acuña did not play in the 2021 World Series due to a torn ACL.

Acuña premiered his podcast last month and he has since hosted his father, his cousin and WBC teammate Royals’ Maikel Garcia, and mentalist Michel Gallero on the show.