The Braves announced on Tuesday morning that they’re dropping the “interim” label from Brian Snitker’s title and naming him their full-time manager. Additionally, the Braves announced that Ron Washington has been hired as the team’s new third base coach, as Bo Porter will become a special assistant to general manager John Coppolella. Snitker receives a one-year deal for the 2017 season with a club option for the 2018 campaign as well.
In addition to those moves, the Braves exercised their 2017 options on bench coach Terry Pendelton, first base coach Eddie Perez, hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and assistant hitting coach Jose Castro, adding that bullpen coach Marty Reed will return to the team in 2017 as well. Pitching coach Roger McDowell is the only 2016 coach that won’t remain with the club, as was reported last week, and he’ll be replaced internally by minor league pitching coordinator (and former Rays pitching coach) Chuck Hernandez.
“Brian earned this opportunity through his dedication to the Braves and to our players,” said Coppolella of his new full-time manager, via press release. “We are excited for the energy and momentum he will bring into SunTrust Park next season.”
The 60-year-old Snitker (61 next week) was named interim manager earlier this season after the Braves dismissed Fredi Gonzalez from the post that he had occupied since the 2011 campaign. The 2017 season, incredibly, will be the 41st year that Snitker has spent with the Atlanta organization, Atlanta notes in its release. He’s spent 20 of those seasons as a manager at the minor league level, overseeing clubs in Triple-A, Double-A, Class-A Advanced, Class-A and Rookie ball.
Suffice it to say, while Snitker may not have been a household name at the time he was named interim skipper earlier this year — and may still not be a household name now — he’s been a mainstay in the Braves organization and has earned the trust of Coppolella, president of baseball operations John Hart and vice chariman John Schuerholz over the life of his lengthy career with the team. Beyond his four decades of loyalty, the turnaround to which Snitker guided the rebuilding Braves in 2016 was indeed impressive. Inheriting a 9-28 club, Snitker saw the Braves finish at a much-improved 59-65 pace — including a 37-35 record in the season’s second half. While some of that success, certainly, can be attributed to the arrival of players like Dansby Swanson and Matt Kemp, in addition to rebounds from veterans Nick Markakis, Jim Johnson and others, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Mark Bowman of MLB.com have repeatedly reported on how well respected Snitker became in the clubhouse early on as they began to report over the past week that he had emerged as the favorite to land this position.
Snitker’s primary competitors in the search were longtime Padres manager Bud Black and the man who will now serve as his third base coach: Washington. O’Brien and Bowman have been suggesting that Snitker was the likeliest candidate to come away with the job over the past week, however, and multiple reports yesterday indicated that Snitker was the favorite, with an announcement expected in the very near future. Washington will depart the Athletics organization, where he also served as third base coach, to join the Braves, and Coppolella expressed excitement over the addition of the former Rangers skipper to his coaching staff in the aforementioned press release:
“Ron’s background and success as a Major League manager will be an asset to everyone on the club,” said Coppolella. “His tireless work ethic, up-beat attitude and tremendously high baseball IQ will benefit our players and our staff.”
Black, meanwhile, will have to wait a bit longer to find himself at the helm of another big league club, though his reputation, experience and industry-wide respect make it likely that he’ll land such a post at some point in the future if he remains interested in pursuing such opportunities.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
1 year deal with an option is hardly a ringing endorsement (unless Snit requested that of course, he isn’t a spring chicken)
The Washington hire is odd too. Maybe Snit said “I wanna manage one more year and then you can turn it over to Wash” or something like that…
I think Washington makes sense even as a non manager just because he will help guys on defense he could really help Jace Peterson. and Albies coming the Braves infield is going to be very young don’t want them learning any bad habits.
I figured Washington was brought on as a safety valve. If Snitker doesn’t work out they can turn down his option and give Ron the gig. Don’t see any other reason Wash would switch organizations for the same position.
Ron Washington still has a huge presence in NO being closer to that was probably the main reason for the lateral move.
I see Washington switching for another reason. The Braves will actually compete in a couple years. If not 2017. The As are a complete mess and won’t be doing anything the next 5 years.
Contract appears to keep the interim tag on. And they’ve secured his replacement in Ron
I think the Braves are taking a page out of the White Sox playbook. That is, hire a guy, but if you are not sure, then install another manager type into the coaching staff in case he does not work out. (like the Sox likely did with Renteria)
Great idea: just hire all the candidates and if one fails, you have like 5 capable in house ones!
Atlanta doing smart things, yet again….
I don’t see how Roger McDowell gets dismissed when essentially the Braves were rebuilding. Jim Johnson had a good year, and part of the reason was one Roger McDowell. How can you blame him for the other failures? He should not have been dismissed.
Maybe McDowell asked, the opening in Baltimore is attractive to him. He’s not really that good of a pitcher.
One pitcher having a good year doesn’t keep a job when there are 20 something other pitchers with issues and injuries.
He wasn’t fired, he just didn’t have an option picked up. Part of that can be because a new manager would want his guy in there.
I’m not saying Jim Johnson is a great pitcher/closer, what I am saying is that he righted the ship after Johnson had gone off the rails, that to me makes McDowell a good coach. Anyhow, what’s done is done. As far as I am concerned it’s hard to replace guys like Mazzone and McDowell.
There was talk that McDowell was good with more vets and experienced pitchers, which is why there were a lot of turnarounds (Ben Sheets, Lucas Harrell, Bud Norris, etc.), but he was not as adept as maturing the young arms and the next generation as well. A lack of growth from young arms was more to blame for McDowell’s departure than anything else. He’s done well for the 11 years he was in ATL, but it’s time for a change and I think the incoming manager should have had the final decision. However, I do believe the BAL opening (their pitching coach was a mentor to McDowell) was well-timed and not by coincidence. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t end up with the job.
Agreed, they’ve turned around a lot of vets, but the new class is struggling. Hell, look at Aaron Blair, he didn’t right the ship until he went back down to AAA.
Prob cause it’s HARD pitching in the ML’s. AAA Turnaround says. Nothing a pitchers success. There NO comparison better the two levels.
Too bad for the A’s to lose Wash… Great mentor…
I love this move. Super excited for next season. It is going to be fun to watch. Super stoked to see how the off-season goes as well
It should also be interesting to see what they do this offseason. Weiters? Pitching? Pretty soon, it’ll be exciting for braves fans.
I am happy that Mr Snitker gets the interim tag removed. The players obviously play their tails off for him. Great move bringing Kemp onto the team also. It has been a pleasure watching the team grow.
A little surprised Wash is leaving Oakland, but upon reflection, it might have felt to him like going backwards. I am glad at least that he was there to mold Marcus Semien into an acceptable defensive major league shortstop. The Braves are definitely an organization on the upswing, moving into a new park, with all kinds of young players (and a new manager) to mentor. Sounds like a good move (and as others mentioned, I’m sure the proximity to New Orleans helps as well).
(Going back to Oakland might have felt like going backwards, to be clear.)
That seems like quite a step down for a former manager to take a third base coach job on a rebuilding team.
Except his previous job was as third base coach, so its more of a lateral move. He took a step down/back after resigning from Texas. Nothing compared to Ruben Amaro’s dive, though
One could certainly argue that Oakland is in a state of almost perpetual rebuild themselves. They have spikes of great seasons for sure, but nothing lasting with such a strict budget. The Braves are at least trending upward and are publicly focusing on being structuring their organization to be competitive for a long time. Of course we will have to see how it all plays out over the next several seasons.
Ugh. If you didn’t figure this out last year, “reputation, experience and industry-wide respect” don’t matter one bit to GM’s looking for a new manager. There’s a reason Bud Black has been snubbed for so managing jobs in the past 366 days.
He wasn’t snubbed last year, he didn’t want to take what the Nationals offered.
He turned down the Washington job, who is to say he didn’t turn down this job? Honestly, I like Bud Black but it’s not like he’s some amazing manager with unparalleled success. He presided over one of the biggest meltdown jobs in the last 20 years in 2010. His Padre teams never qualified for the playoffs and he only finished better than third once in eight years. Even if they didn’t offer him the job, who cares? It’s not like they passed over Joe Madden or Jack McKeon to hire Snitker.
People on here act like Black is up there with McKeon and Maddon. And Maddon was terrible in last night’s game by the way.
I’ve bet you’ve never had a bad at your job, huh? Easily manage in hindsight, right?
I am 50/50 I would have rather hire someone out the box or maybe bring in someone that was let go like Weiss Ventura Williams Sandberg or Gullien
“It’s not that hard, Scott. Tell ’em, Wash.”
It’s Extremely Hard…..
Love it for the Bravos. Really tough to not give it to as it after the way they (relatively) turned it around once Fredi G was gone, AND it’s an easy deal to get out of if at some point the FO starts to think his 2016 magic was just a flash in the pan. Hope it works out for all of them!
All the speculation that Snitker’s new contract shows a lack of confidence in his abilities is absurd. Only two current managers have four years deals – Maddon and Dave Roberts. Both those clubs are cash rich and can afford to let a manager go or lock one up with big dollars. The rest of the league has 1-2 year contracts with some options, albeit there are a few more with three years. The lack of confidence hypothetical is flawed, as the majority of the league has similar arrangements. The shorter contracts maintain payroll flexibility and allow organizations to ensure any front office turnover doesn’t leave new top brass handcuffed in the case of their contracts expiring or being released. Again, its more a function of flexibility and logic, wherein front offices only extend management offers for the extent of their own contract terms or less.
I think a lot of fans forget that 1 year contracts used to be the norm for managers. I want to say that great managers such as Tommy Lasorda and Walter Alston both managed for a long time via a 1 year contract.
Correction – Mattingly has a four year deal with the Marlins, too.
It seems weird to add Ron Washington to the staff unless Brian Snitker was okay with that because if not than it seems like no vote of confidence on Brian Snitker within Atlanta Braves front office & Ownership if they decide to add Ron Washington to the staff without any impute..
Thought maybe Ron Washington know something we don’t know as seems like Oakland A’s might be making some coaching changes this season with another bad season with Bob Melvin at the helm, they do need make changes weather it with him or some of his coaches just saying..
The A’s have yet to announce their 2017 coaching staff.
athleticsnation.com/2016/10/11/13241342/ron-washin…
Washington has alot of history with the current front office and, like you mentioned, maybe he felt more secure with us, instead of the A’s with their situation. There is a lot to be said working with old associates, especially in one’s twilight years. Snicker strikes me as part of the team big time and I doubt he is opposed to bringing in more familiar faces. He is pretty secure with a forty year tenure no matter what. I bet his retirement is well sorted by now.