The Atlanta Braves’ Brian Snitker’s calming leadership approach should be the envy of all MLB managers.
There is no sign of Snitker riding off into baseball’s proverbial sunset. At 69, a time when most coaches, instructors, and managers have long hung up their spikes and turned in their uniforms in favor of daily tee times and routine pickleball court reservations, Sniker is readying for another spring training in Florida’s Sarasota County.
CoolTodayPark in the City of North Port, once again, is Sniker’s home away from home during the Braves’ spring training season. Heading into his 10th campaign as Atlanta’s skipper, Snitker remains the anchor that keeps the club in contention year after year for a World Series championship.
“I’m proud of our guys. They did a spectacular job last season,” Snitker told The Epoch Times while in attendance for MLB Media Day held in Bradenton, Florida. “With all the injuries our club sustained, we responded well. Even when the deck seems stacked against you, you prepare each day as if it isn’t.”
Consistent and confident, regardless of the score or who’s penciled in the opposing team’s lineup, Sniker is who his players have continually put their faith in. Forty-nine years in the Braves’ organization, 1,317 games as Atlanta’s manager with only 20 ejections, and thankful to the late National Baseball Hall of Famer (and former Brave) Hank Aaron’s recommendation to management to give “the kid” a break as a coach when his playing days were over after the 1980 season, Sniker is able to relate with players young enough to be his grandchildren.
“It’s wonderful having him around our club. Brian brings so much wisdom,” Braves’ President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Alex Anthropoulos told The Epoch Times, adding that Snitker’s “had an unbelievable career, and we’re grateful for the experience he brings to our ball club.”
Injuries to key Braves’ players last season including pitcher Spencer Strider, outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr., and third baseman Austin Riley proved to be incredibly taxing to a club looking to keep their consecutive run at postseason appearances going. For the past seven seasons, the Snitker-led Braves have made the postseason schedule. In 2018, Snitker earned National League Manager of the Year honors. In 2021, the Braves won the World Series in six games, besting the Houston Astros.
Any success that Snitker has claimed as Atlanta’s manager hasn’t come without significant personal sacrifice.
“Every now and then I have a moment; when I reflect on where I’m at, and how I got here,” said Snitker, who started his affiliation with the Braves when President Jimmy Carter was in the Oval Office.
Snitker shares a time when just starting out as a young, inexperienced manager when money was scarce, and his wife Veronica shopped at consignment stores in the minor league cities that were their temporary homes. Odd to some who may only know him from a distance but certainly no surprise to those within the Braves’ organization, Snitker successfully grasps the analytics era of baseball, and is still able to count on his gut feelings in real game time, when making crucial decisions.
Younger and older players, members of his staff who look to Snitker to rudder the Braves’ ship, rarely see a change in emotion from his perch on the bench. Last season, when Riley broke his hand last August in a game at Angel Stadium in Los Angeles, that flight home after the game to Atlanta was one of the few times when Snitker was questioning why his club may have been snake bit. Although the club qualified for the National League Wild Card Series, they lost the two-game series to the San Diego Padres.
With the Braves’ Grapefruit League schedule set to begin this coming Saturday with the Minnesota Twins on the road to Fort Myers, Florida, Sniker has last October’s two losses to the Padres at a distance in his managerial rear window.
Memories of starting out as a 21-year-old catcher in the Braves’ system in rookie ball in 1977—a time when cell phones didn’t exist, a gallon of regular gasoline in America was 62 cents per gallon, no internet or social media had been created yet, and cable TV was in its infancy—Snitker has found a formula to remain relevant.
“I could remember managing my first club. I'd be in my office, trying to remember my players’ names, and wondering what I was going to have them do in that night’s game,” explains Snitker, who credits the late Braves’ pitcher and pitching coach Johnny Sain as an early mentor in his career. “I was challenged, but I wasn’t going to slow down, and I haven’t.”
Competing for the National League East title in 2025 seems to be an even tougher task to accomplish than what the Braves experienced in 2024.
There have been some key personnel losses. Starring pitcher Max Fried left as a free agent to the New York Yankees. Jorge Soler was traded to the Angels. Charlie Morton will be pitching for the Baltimore Orioles. Gio Urshela, a key pick up to fill in during Riley’s injury, is now with the A’s.
There’s no panic, just optimism in Snitker’s voice as he reviews his options for the upcoming season. There’s a twinkle in his eye as he stands and prepares for the 50-mile return drive from Bradenton to Braves headquarters in North Port.
Steady as he goes, the wheels of decades of MLB experience are turning in his mind, and that short stretch of a smile he offers signals unmatched confidence by one of, if not the most respected, managers in the game today. There’s no counting the Braves or Snitker out in 2025.
