Atlanta Braves fans are well aware that Ronald Acuña Jr. has no problems playing the villain with the Braves’ rivals. The Marlins famously went after him at every opportunity when Don Mattingly was their manager and the boos rain down on him at a lot of road parks. However, a pair of New York radio hosts seem to think that the Mets need to take things a few steps further.

Obviously the Mets have looked objectively terrible against the Braves this season to this point. Atlanta thumping them in multiple different ways is pretty much the reason why New York is not in first place in the division right now. The Mets are in the middle of a horrible slide and it is understandable that they and their fans would be in their feelings.

However, ESPN radio hosts Rick DiPietro and Dave Rothenberg calling for the Mets to drill Acuña Jr. is a step too far.

Mets radio hosts calling for Ronald Acuña Jr. to get drilled are just showing their inferiority complex when it comes to the Braves

For at least two minutes, these doofuses go to great lengths advocating for Acuña Jr. to get hit. Much of it has to do with Acuña Jr. doing a bit of a stutter step during his home run trot the other day, but they also seem to think that it could light a fire under this Mets roster that is sleepwalking their way towards the All-Star break.

Let’s ignore for the moment that the Mets, whose fans are complaining about Acuña Jr. taking his time around the bases, have three guys in the top 16 slowest average home run trots in baseball (and well ahead of Acuña’s 26.31 second average) with Luis Torrens at 35.52 second leading the way as a slow catcher, Juan Soto being a significantly worse offender than Acuña Jr. at 28.59 seconds, and then Francisco Alvarez at 27.41 seconds. The bigger question is what exactly is the next step if New York does this? What the hell is this end game?

If the Mets drill Acuña Jr., the Braves will almost certainly respond in kind to one of their guys. The Braves have a pair of rookie starters who throw pretty hard going the next two games. You really want to send Pete Alonso (who talks plenty of trash and who is a famously easy target to hit) or Francisco Lindor to the plate because the Mets couldn’t get Acuña out? Good luck.

Honestly, it may be to the Braves’ benefit if New York does get a little feisty. Atlanta had the wind taken out of their sails after struggling out of the gates. If you want to wake up this entire roster that is more talented than the Mets, be our guess. The obvious problem is that Acuña Jr. could get hurt if this train of thought is followed, but that isn’t anything new given the number of teams that can’t handle the 2023 MVP through normal means.