The Braves announced that they have hired Jeremy Hefner as pitching coach and Antoan Richardson as first base coach. Henfer replaces Rick Kranitz while Richardson replaces Tom Goodwin. Mark Bowman of MLB.com reports that third base coach Fredi Gonzalez won’t be returning to Atlanta next year either.
Atlanta is plucking a couple of coaches from a division rival. Over a month ago, it was reported that the Mets would be making major coaching changes. That included moving on from Hefner, their longtime pitching coach. More recently, it was reported that Richardson would be moving on from the Mets as well. Both of them now retake their previous jobs but in Atlanta instead of Queens.
Hefner, now 39, had a brief major league career. He pitched for the Mets in 2012 and 2013, making 50 appearances, before multiple Tommy John surgeries intervened. Once his playing days were over, he was hired by the Twins as an advance scout. He worked his way up to an assistant pitching coach role. The Mets hired him as their pitching coach prior to the 2020 season.
It’s always tough to separate the contributions of one coach from several individual players, but the team performed decently under Hefner’s watch. From 2020 to 2025, the Mets had a collective 4.03 earned run average, good enough for 11th in the majors. He’ll now head to Atlanta to join a club looking for a bounceback after an extremely disappointing 2025 campaign.
Bringing one pitching coach aboard means another is on his way out. Kranitz, 67, has spent most of the past two decades as a pitching coach in the big leagues. He first got that job with the Marlins in 2006 and has since gone to the Orioles, Brewers and Phillies.
Atlanta hired him ahead of the 2019 season. They had just finished a 90-72 campaign in 2018 but parted ways with pitching coach Chuck Hernandez afterwards. The club has had a lot of success under Kranitz but has been struggling more recently. Atlanta won the National League East in Kranitz’s first five seasons, a run which included a World Series win in 2021. However, they slid to a Wild Card spot in 2024 and then this past season was a nightmare. Atlanta finished 2025 in fourth place in the East with a 76-86 record. Evidently, it was time for a change.
Richardson, 42, has had various coaching roles with the Giants and Mets over the years. He has settled in more recently as a first base coach, having had that job with the Giants from 2020 to 2023 and with the Mets for the past two years.
Goodwin, 57, has coached for various clubs over the years. He spent the past two seasons as first base coach in Atlanta but will be looking for a new gig for 2026. Gonzalez, 61, has also bounced around to various teams. A lot of those bounces have been in Atlanta. He was on the coaching staff from 2003 to 2006 and was the manager from 2011 to 2016. He returned to the club in June of this year, a rare midseason replacement, taking the job from Matt Tuiasosopo.
Photo courtesy of Gregory Fisher, Imagn Images
Well bye bye Fredi.
At least one good thing came out of this managerial change.
Could be awkward for a new manager to have on his staff an old Braves manager. “That’s now I woulda dun it.” Snit was grounded for a few years when they brought Fredi back in. Still unsure why he was brought back, tbh.
Yep, I agree. And even though they were obviously in the dugout some together finishing up the season, it maybe that the two of them weren’t particularly close friends or saw eye to eye.
Wow kinda surprising they’re moving on from Kranitz. I’m indifferent either way just surprised….bring back Wash plz 🙏
Wash might be hoping to interview for one of the other managerial openings, but yeah Wash coming back to the Braves would be cool to see.
I agree- I think Kranitz has done well.
I hope Washington catches on somewhere at least.
Mets down bad
Lol Mets losing their one good coach ( the best 1B coach I have ever seen ) to the Braves while retaining the worst Manager I have ever seen who has no in game feel for managing talent. Outside of stealing bases the Mets were the most fundamentally unsound team in MLB.
I hope they move Kranitz to director of pitching development
Per Mark Bowman: Rick Kranitz, Tom Goodwin, and Frèdi Gonzalez have been informed they won’t be returning to the braves coaching staff.
To be fair….being on the team’s coaching staff and the organization’s development team are different arenas
Nice Mets troll move by the Braves.
Mets trolls will love this.
Man that hurts the Mets a lot. Losing them was bad enough but to see em go to ATL is a killer
Is it?
One of them was fired and the other, as good as he was, is just a 1st base coach
I’m sure the Mets will now hire two 1B coaches just to be sure they aren’t being shown up.
Yeah…well Wash was “just” the third base coach, but most fans would tell you his impact is definitely missed. Not saying they’re correct or he’s Wash, but it isn’t just holding on to elbow guards until the bat boy trots out
If Mets really really wanted Richardson to stay they would’ve paid him to stay . Hefner is no loss . Braves shouldn’t be importing Mets pitching culture when they have a great history of pitching culture
Richardson and the Mets “couldn’t come to terms”. No one has reported whether those terms were money or something else, while Andy Martino reported that the Mets made a strong attempt to retain him.
Richardson might have been seeking a promotion. And with multiple teams hiring new managers, it seemed like such a promotion could be available. He’d coached Buster Posey, now POBO, in SF. And his fellow coach there was named the manager in Bal just before Richardson left the Mets.
His contract expired, he was a free agent, and he chose to test the market. What he wanted, and whether or not the Mets should have given it to him is pure speculation.
Puma has a quote from Richardson saying it was salary
Knee jerk reaction: Mets are going to regret firing Hefner, especially if he’s in ATL.
Prior to all the changes, was hoping the Braves might ring Mike Maddux’ number, but he moved on ahead of them, plus I think he prefers to work out west.
Hope Braves fans are excited to watch guys nibble around the edges and get to 95 pitches in the 4th!
We’ve been seeing that already.
Braves hiring Richardson means he won’t be part of Vitello’s coaching staff. Was hoping for a Giants reunion with Richardson
I hope they bring back Wash. I think Ozzie does too.