Brian Snitker Will Not Return As Braves’ Manager In 2026

The Braves will have a new manager in 2026. Brian Snitker has informed the team that he will not continue in the dugout beyond the 2025 season, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. Snitker will remain with the organization as a senior advisor but will hand over the reins in the dugout to a new hire. The Braves formally announced the decision just minutes after Passan’s report and added that Snitker will be inducted into the Atlanta Braves Hall of Fame prior to a game next season.

The 69-year-old Snitker has spent the past decade as the Braves’ manager but has been in the organization for a staggering 49 years. He’s previously managed at nearly every minor league level in the system and held roles as the major league bullpen coach and third base coach.

Snitker was named interim manager in May 2016, when the organization dismissed then-skipper Fredi Gonzalez, who’d been on the job since 2011. Snitker quickly shed the interim label that offseason after an Atlanta club that started the season in a 9-28 swoon rallied to a more respectable 59-65 showing. Snitker signed a two-year contract to see the team through a rebuild but emerged as a mainstay in the dugout on the other side of that youth movement. The Braves won 90 games in 2018, leading to not only their first postseason appearance in five years — but an NL Manager of the Year win for Snitker.

Atlanta has since extended Snitker multiple times. The Braves organization lifer has compiled an 811-668 record as the big league skipper, overseen seven postseason berths (including six straight division titles) and, of course, guided the team to a victory in the 2021 World Series. He’ll step down as the skipper with the second-most wins in Atlanta Braves history, trailing only Bobby Cox’s 2,149. (Frank Selee’s 1,004 wins for the then-Boston Beaneaters in the late 1800s technically stand as second in franchise history.)

The 2025 season was the final year on Snitker’s contract. Between that and the fact that he’ll turn 70 later this month, he’s faced plenty of questions and speculation about his future throughout the season. He’s remained noncommittal and focused on his duties in the dugout but never firmly dismissed the possibility of continuing on as manager. Similarly, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said late in the season that he had “absolutely not” begun laying groundwork for a potential managerial search, calling the notion of doing so “completely disrespectful” to Snitker and his legacy within the organization.

Anthopoulos will now embark in earnest on a managerial search. Incredibly, the new hire will be just the fourth Braves manager since 1990. Cox led the team from 1990-2010, with Gonzalez stepping in from 2011-16 and Snitker helming the club since. It’s commonplace in situations like this for an organization to allow its coaching staff to at least explore new opportunities, as a new manager will generally be given plenty of say over the rest of his dugout staff. That’s not to suggest that Atlanta will have an entirely new cast of coaches next year; some members of the current staff may even be considered for the newly created vacancy. Bench coach Walt Weiss, for instance, has four years of major league managing experience and has served as Snitker’s right-hand man since 2018.

Snitker’s decision to step down means there are now a remarkable eight teams in search of a new manager this offseason — with the possibility for further turnover still existing, depending on the decisions of clubs still alive in the postseason. The Nationals, Orioles and Rockies all finished the 2025 season with interim managers after firing their skippers midseason. The Twins and Giants fired Rocco Baldelli and Bob Melvin following the season. The 2025 season was the final year of Bruce Bochy’s contract in Texas, and he won’t return to the Rangers in 2026. And the Angels, who elevated Ray Montgomery to interim manager after Ron Washington required midseason heart surgery, have announced that neither Montgomery nor Washington will return to their club next year. This winter will be the most active offseason in recent history with regard to managerial activity.