Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker was named a finalist for National League Manager of the year on Monday evening. He was named alongside Buck Showalter and Dave Roberts. This isn’t surprising as all three managers led their respective clubs to 100+ win seasons. The winners will be announced next week with Snit having a very good chance at taking home some hardware of his own.
Brian Snitker has been named a finalist for the NL Manager of the Year Award!
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) November 7, 2022
Congrats, Snit! pic.twitter.com/0U79s00TUq
Since taking over for Fredi Gonzalez, Snitker has proven that he knows how to get the most out of his players. The team seemingly appeared to play with more heart once he took the reigns. This led to the team adopting the moniker “Don’t Quit with Snit”.
Snit won the award once back in 2018 and he has a very strong case for winning it again in 2022. The Braves trailed the Mets for the NL East lead for almost the entire season. However, Snitker gave a speech in Arizona after Atlanta dropped 2 games to the Diamondbacks and found themselves 10.5 games back of New York. After that speech, the Braves won 8 straight games and trimmed that lead to 6.5 games.
The surge didn’t stop there as Atlanta kept winning and ultimately took the division lead after sweeping the Mets in a three-game series in September. This led the Braves to their fifth consecutive NL East title. Atlanta won 101 games and that was the most in a season since 2003 when they won the same amount of games.
Snitker is 545-451 (.546) in seven seasons as manager for the Atlanta Braves. While Snit may make questionable decisions at times, there’s no one else that is more suited or happy to manage this team. The Braves are better for having him at the helm. Congratulations, Snit!