Brian Snitker is entering his tenth season as the Braves’ manager, and his 49th season overall as a member of Atlanta’s organization. The skipper also turns 70 years old in October, and his most recent contract extension with the Braves (signed back in January 2023) was just a one-year pact that covered the 2025 campaign.
With all this in mind, Snitker seems to be at least considering ending his managerial career once this season is over. He recently told the New York Post’s Jon Heyman that “I’ll let the year get underway and see what happens,” and told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that last year, Snitker did view 2025 as his last season, though he now isn’t ready to make a final call.
“I still feel really good, and the 50-number [50 years with the Braves] is something I think it’d be kind of cool. But right now, I’m leaning towards getting through today,” Snitker told Nightengale.
It speaks to Snitker’s baseball-lifer status that stepping away from the manager’s chair wouldn’t mean he is retiring entirely, as “hopefully, I’ll just stay around here and be one of those advisor guys. I’ll go to the minor-league parks, come to Spring Training a little bit and spend a lot of time watching my grandkids.” So technically, such an advisory role could stretch Snitker’s Atlanta tenure into yet another decade, even if he would be free from the day-to-day grind of managing.
Bobby Cox and Frank Selee are the only managers in franchise history with more wins than Snitker, who is 735-585 over his nine-plus seasons. That resume includes seven consecutive winning seasons, and a streak of six straight NL East titles that ended only with last season’s second-place finish. Snitker’s run of success was highlighted by the Braves’ triumph in the 2021 World Series, as Atlanta overcame losing Ronald Acuna Jr. to a torn ACL that season and launched something of a Cinderella run to the championship.
Snitker’s minor league playing career consisted of four seasons in the Atlanta farm system, and he then immediately pivoted into a roving instructor position in 1980. This was the stepping stone to becoming a minor league manager in 1982, with Snitker acting as the skipper for multiple teams at multiple rungs of the organizational ladder over the next three-plus decades. These minor league managerial assignments came in between three different stints on the Braves’ big league coaching staff — Snitker was the bullpen coach in 1985 and then again from 1988-90, and he acted as the third base coach from 2007-13.
Snitker was the manager at Triple-A Gwinnett when he was named the Braves’ interim manager in May 2016, after Fredi Gonzalez was fired. Though Snitker was only 59-65 over the remainder of that season, it was enough to earn him the full-time job, and Snitker then went 72-90 during the 2017 campaign. As Nightengale notes, Snitker’s job security was on shaky ground before an even bigger shake-up happened within the organization, as GM John Coppolella resigned due to a league investigation into allegations that the Braves violated international signing rules. Alex Anthopoulos was quickly brought on as the new general manager, and kept Snitker as manager in part to maintain some stability within an unusual situation for the team.
“I didn’t know anything about Brian Snitker but his name when I got here,’’ Anthopoulos told Nightengale. “I didn’t know who he was. I literally had no attachment, no history whatsoever. Now, I have the highest level of trust from a personal standpoint, a professional standpoint, which is critically important. I have so much trust in him in everything we do.”
It would appear that Anthopoulos would be more than happy to keep Snitker in the job beyond 2025, and if Snitker does decide to return, another one-year extension could be worked out in pretty quick fashion. All of Snitker’s contracts as manager have been short-term deals of no longer than two guaranteed years, perhaps as a nod to Snitker’s age even though his teams kept delivering on the field.
Snitker’s future will be a major running subplot of what is expected to be another year of high expectations in Atlanta. As much as flags fly forever, the Braves haven’t won a playoff series in the three years since that 2021 ring, and now face heavy competition just in the NL East, let alone the National League as a whole. Still, the Braves overcame a lot of major injuries to still at least reach the postseason last year, and a healthier roster could help Snitker potentially go out on a high note if he does decide to end his managerial career.
