The Atlanta Braves and Brian Snitker were married for decades. Snitker started his career in Atlanta as a player, then a scout, then a minor-league manager and eventually the true successor to Bobby Cox with the big-league club. Snitker's run – which includes a World Series in 2021 – is one of the most successful in franchise history. Because of this, he will not be easy to replace.
Alex Anthopoulos, the Braves president of baseball operations, is tasked with replacing Snitker. So far, he hasn't made a whole lot of progress. Anthopoulos is notorious for keeping these sorts of matters close to the vest. For all we know, he could announce Snitker's replacement in a press release tomorrow, including a donation to the Braves Foundation. What's far more likely, though, is that Anthopoulos is biding his time until after the MLB Playoffs so he can interview all available candidates.
“You just can’t rush it or force it,” Anthopoulos said. “It’s a big decision. It’s a big hire. You’d love to do it sooner rather than later. But every team going through this would tell you the same thing.”
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The flaw in Braves approach to replacing Brian Snitker
Anthopoulos is right – the Braves should not rush to replace Snitker. However, they've already made a few mistakes along the way. First, they did not call the Rangers to gauge Skip Schumaker's interest in taking the job. Schumaker managed in the Braves division with the Miami Marlins and is a former NL Manager of the Year. If any organization should know how talented of a coach he is, it's the Braves considering they were victimized by his Marlins on multiple occasions.
Second, while Atlanta is considering in-house candidates, they also gave much of their coaching staff permission to seek jobs elsewhere should they choose. Essentially, the Braves shooed away the best external candidate, and could lose out on internal candidates if they don't act quickly enough. That makes Mark Bowman's reporting all the more concerning:
"Though many fans have been devising their own wish lists over the past few months, Anthopoulos said as of Saturday morning, he hadn’t created his own list of candidates. He also said if the process works as he hopes, the candidates’ names won’t leak before a hire is made," Bowman wrote.
Anthopoulos is more concerned about finding a manager his way – something he hasn't had to do in Atlanta, by the way – than he is in replacing Snitker with the right voice for this organization. Ideally, he can achieve both of those things, replacing Snitker undercover without the media finding out. Thus far, the returns haven't been promising.
Who are the favorites to replace Brian Snitker in Atlanta?
In spite on Anthopoulos' relative inaction and silence about the Braves managerial opening, a couple of early favorites have emerged. David Ross has shown interest in the job, saying he'd welcome the chance to manage a team with as much talent on it as Atlanta. Walt Weiss, who previously managed the Rockies and was Snitker's right-hand man, should earn him an interview. The question for Anthopoulos is whether he wants to usher in change, or stick with the company line in the wake of Snitker's retirement.
If the answer is the former, then new faces like Ross, Ryan Flaherty, or Danny Lehmann could make a lot of sense. Fresh eyes on a stale product can come in handy for a Braves team that lost in the Wild Card Series in 2024, and missed the postseason altogether in 2025. If Anthopoulos wants a stable hand and, most likely, more of the same, he should look no further than Weiss, who was considered by some as the 'manager-in-waiting,' per Bowman, and was the Braves bench coach for Snitker for the past eight seasons.