As expected, the Braves will continue to operate under the direction of Brian Snitker
The Atlanta Braves announced today that they have extended Brian Snitker with a two year contract extension that includes a club option for the 2021 season.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The Braves officially announced the Snit extension - Two years and an option https://t.co/BqCUvUV2ws
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) October 15, 2018
After multiple 1 year deals, Snitker will be rewarded with a 2 year secure deal now. After a tumultuous pairing with John Coppolella and John Hart, it seems new General Manager Alex Anthopolous and Brian Snitker are now on the same page and moving forward.
Snitker, who turns 63 on Wednesday, has gone 222-227 since taking over for Fredi Gonzalez in May of the 2016 season, and despite being the manager for just shy of 3 seasons, is the 2nd longest current tenured manager in the NL East. Only Don Mattingly has been in his post longer than Snitker.
The Braves surprised many in the 2018 season and won the NL East behind the spectacular play of the younger Braves players and veterans providing great contributions to the team. Freddie Freeman, the team leader, has been very vocal about the fact that he wanted Snitker to remain manager.
Considerable History
Snitker started in the Braves organization in 1977 as a player and been in the organization ever since. He has managed throughout the minor leagues and has been on Atlanta’s coaching staff as a bullpen coach and a 3rd base coach before becoming the Atlanta manger on an interim basis in 2016.
In October of that season, the interim tag was removed. Snitker has been operating on a year-to-year basis since then… until now.
More news also came out today about a portion of Snitker’s coaching staff. General Manager Alex Anthopolous announced that Chuck Hernandez would not be returning as the pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves.
Alex A. said #Braves would open up pitching coach search to "full process" and consider candidates in-house and outside (though it seems clear they'll look for an established guy, given their young pitching talent and depth)
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) October 15, 2018
Anthopolous did say Hernandez may be retained within the organization in another role however.
Anthopoulos has not yet targeted a specific individual to become the next pitching coach. A final decision regarding Hernandez was not reached until Friday.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) October 15, 2018
Internal candidates include Marty Reed, Dom Chiti and Sal Fasano. But for now, I think it will be an external hire.
So the Atlanta Braves and Brian Snitker will now be on the lookout for a new pitching coach.
Given the information from Mark Bowman, I think we can expect the process to play out for a few weeks.