I don’t really have much to say here, except that we need a placeholder for the postseason comments that have already begun. I (and others) will begin posting stuff shortly, after a bit of time to grieve. But for now, speculate freely, but as amiably as the people in this picture, other than the one who is prone.
Let the Post Mortem Discussions Begin
This season was a lot of misplaced hope.
We hoped a questionable and somewhat injured rotation would be healthy and that losing Max Fried wouldn’t be noticed.
We hoped Arcia would not be a disaster at SS, despite the 2024 evidence, and to the extent he was, Nick Allen would somehow learn to hit.
We hoped Albies would rebound to all star play despite a bad 2024 and injury.
We hoped some combination of Profar, Verdugo, and White could help us deal with Acuna missing half the season.
We hoped our bullpen wasn’t as weak as it seemed.
Well, hope in one hand, crap in the other, and the one that fills up first is the 2025 season.
Predictions:
– Snitker is back on a one-year-deal with an announcement of his intent to retire after 2026.
– Aaron Bummer is traded for salary relief.
– Kim leaves.
– Ozuna signs a two-year, $24 million deal.
– Braves trade Sean Murphy, AJ Smith-Shawver, and others to Texas for Nathan Eovaldi + salary.
I have nothing to say, but they’d probably take away my professional license if I didn’t point out that the dead guy in the picture is supine, not prone. Prone is face-down.
I never knew that!
But what you don’t know is that the deceased was in a horrible accident in which he was impaled on a corkscrew, and he actually is prone.
I didn’t know that either!
I don’t think SDP is too far off, unfortunately. I would not be a fan of bringing back Ozuna, and I am afraid that Kim will likely be gone. The trade to Texas? I am not really sure, but Murphy is at a position of strength so it makes some sense. I just really hope we move on from Ozuna who will now be most likely returning from hip surgery. As someone who had both hips replaced in his 40’s, the recovery is pretty easy but then again, I am not a professional baseball player trying to compete at the highest level either.
The failure of this team fell on the offense. Who could have predicted the suspension, the decline in production from some very talented players. A lack of situational hitting and plate discipline just killed scoring opportunities. This led to low scoring games with a bullpen short on high leverage arms. The bullpen was ok if we scored more runs but just not built to compete during tight games. I am hoping for a couple of lockdown bullpen arms and revisit the Byron Buxton trade.
Buxton would’ve been in the hall of fame with health. Problem is he has never been healthy for a full season. You’re wanting to trade for a guy who has played 100 games or more 3 times in 9 seasons, excluding the Covid year and 140 games only once.
If he comes cheap, sure, but the twins are going to want a major package for their star.
I didn’t realize Cleveland essentially has four pitching coaches.
I’ve long believed in adding additional coaches – Mac used to advocate for it, too, as it’s clear that different players responded to different voices. Hard to argue with the success they’ve had over there at taking anonymous guys and turning them into strike-throwing stars. I’d love to see us bring in more coaches on both sides of the ball.
I’ve always assumed that other players could benefit from someone like Smoltz’s shrink. It would probably take different people to reach different players, though.
Skip Schumacher appears to be heir apparent in Texas and Tory Lovullo is returning to Arizona. If you wanted an experienced outside hire to replace Snitker, two names are off the board.
Something tells me Yadier Molina is going to be the next Cardinals manager and it’s only a matter of time, but we’ll see. On the coaching front, Ron Washington’s available again.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/09/angels-to-have-new-manager-in-2026.html
A big part of why Schumaker bailed on the Marlins seemed to be b/c they were (and are) so cheap. Can’t really say that about the Rangers…
C’est la vie
True, but the word here in DFW is that the Rangers will be doing what the Braves did this year–working to stay under luxury tax. So, I’m not sure it’s really going to be that attractive of a job–high priced but injury-prone players, along with kids that haven’t proven themselves yet.
Do the Braves keep Tim Hyers?
I think so and, in general, I hope so. First, I think the second-half offensive explosion probably was enough to save his job, as DOB speculated.
But more basically, I think that a willingness to fire the guy after a single year inherently implies that the strategic decisionmaking process that led them to hire him in the first place was flawed – it calls into question the ability of the organization to be competent to hire the next guy. I firmly believe that bad strategy is better than no strategy, and I think they need to give the guy enough time to be able to definitively answer whether he’s part of the problem or not.
I’m much more willing to consider firing the team’s health and training staff, because the entire team got hurt two years in a row, and we had guys hiding injuries and hurting the team for months on end. I think Alex Anthopoulos gets one more year to turn the ship around before I’m willing to consider his seat sufficiently hot.
I don’t know this, but there is part of me that wonders if Harris turned things around when Heyers told him to just do his thing and stopped trying to coach him. I know about the swing adjustment but it seems like the rest was just going back to his old “aggressive “ approach. His walk rate after the improvement kind of suggests that., I also wonder if the whole team did better in the 2nd half when Heyers backed off some.
Bottom line is I’m not sure if the team fully bought in to the Heyers approach. I won’t be sad to see him leave, whenever that happens.
Lame…
https://www.essentiallysports.com/mlb-baseball-news-yankees-ignite-outrage-among-red-sox-and-blue-jays-fans-with-controversial-playoff-policy/
I wouldn’t mind seeing Ron Washington coaching third again.
I think everyone would agree on that.
Yes, if he can handle it, Bring him back!
If Snitker is back, Hyers is back. This isn’t the kind of organization that will entertain three hitting coaches in three years. I think the offense responded enough in the second half to save his job. And, as some tell it, not every player works with Hyers. Many retain their own outside hitting coaches.
But, if they move on from Snitker, 50/50 — I would imagine that the new guy might be able to bring in his own guy.
I’m coping with this season by thinking that this is the karmic-balance for our WS run where everything imaginable fell in our favor. I don’t know how to fix this team, not sure it’s really fixable. Just need our on-paper stars to play like stars and not get hurt. The Mets make me happy. A quick exit by the Phillies would make this an ok season indeed.
It’s been the most dismal season for me since the Braves got good. There have been some bad seasons since ’91, but they weren’t really unexpected given the talent level. This year, even after the bad start I thought that once they got above .500 in May that the worst was behind us. Little did I suspect that was to be the high water mark. As the season went from bad to worse, I couldn’t bring myself to watch many games, and for the first time in memory did not even visit the site every day during the season despite the high quality of the writing here. Thanks to all the contributors for keeping the faith better than I did.
Confirmed that Snit is NOT back for next year. He will have an advisory role.
Well, I’ll be damned.
I’m relieved. Snit should not have returned. I’m glad he made the right decision, or he was forced to make the right decision and it looks harmonious publicly.
Yeah…it should have been obvious, but he was making noises like he really wanted to come back. That may have just been for public consumption. I hope it was, and nobody had to break it to him that it wouldn’t be an option.
Who’s next?
Walt Weiss? David Ross? Mark DeRosa?
Is Skip Schumaker wrapped up in Texas?
I hope David Ross and that Wash returns as a coach in some capacity.
I wonder how much the financials of Counsell’s contract shifted the baseline for managerial salaries – especially experienced ones – and how that will impact the selectively frugal Braves in their selection. I think Snitker was earning a bit north of $1M.
An elite manager making $8-10 million per year is more than fair. Seems like they can add 2+ wins over 162 games, though it’s hard to really measure.
Snitker was reportedly at $4 million a year, as of 2024. An awful lot of money to not know what was going on in front of him.
Thank you for the ring, thank you for your 49 seasons of service. But this is why you’re better off leaving or being pushed out one year too early rather than one year too late.
Farewell, Snit. Thank you for going out on your own terms. It would have been miserable to root for the team to fire you. I hope we can give him all the Brian Snitker nights he deserves.
He’ll go down as one of the top managers in club history, quite possibly the second-best.
I like Walt Weiss, but some relevant info about his managerial history:
He managed the Rockies from 2013 to 2016.
His actual wins vs pythagorean wins:
2013: -2
2014: -9
2015: -3
2016: -5
He underperformed expectations by 19 wins over 4 seasons. Hard to call that a fluke.
For comparison, David Ross managed the Cubs from 2020-2023.
2020: +1
2021: +3
2022: +1
2023: -7 (and that got him fired)
Schumaker was +10 in two seasons with the Marlins, though he’s as good as hired in Texas I hear.
I’m down with David Ross or Mark DeRosa. I know some don’t like DeRosa. But either one would be fine with me. Energy is needed, and DeRosa provides energy.
Ross would too:
Ok, I’ve gone down the YouTube rabbit hole, and I would be very happy with Ross.
I too would love the energy, but I’d have probably called that a strike too. I was always taught the letters were a strike.
I feel like Walt Weiss would be an incredibly lazy hire.
I don’t disagree… I’m just being realistic.
This is the Braves we’re talking about. If Weiss wants it and is anywhere nearly reasonable in salary, he’s got it. That’s how Snitker got it! I am fine with Ross and even DeRosa, though DeRo’s time as Penn’s QB during a particularly bad era for my Yale Bulldogs still leaves me with some residual ill will. But I could live with Weiss, stampton’s Pythagoreans notwithstanding. His bases-loaded stab in the 1999 playoffs is enough for me…. but I’m a sentimentalist.
Thank you and Farewell, Snit.
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