The Braves were considering parting ways with Brian Snitker at the end of the 2017 season, and the manager revealed to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that he considered quitting out of frustration with then-Braves GM John Coppolella and president of baseball operations John Hart. Snitker reached the point of contacting a clubhouse attendant back in Atlanta to say “Pack my things, I’m not coming back” after Coppolella criticized one of Snitker’s decisions during the Braves’ third-to-last game of the season, an otherwise meaningless matchup against the Marlins. Snitker stuck around long enough, however, to see his situation unexpectedly change, due to Coppolella’s shocking resignation in the wake of a league investigation into international signing violations. With Coppolella and, eventually, Hart both leaving the organization, Snitker formed a good relationship with new Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos and the rest is history, with the Braves winning the NL East. Bowman’s piece is well worth a full read, as it details Snitker’s unlikely path to his first Major League managerial job after spending four decades in the Braves organization as a player, coach, and minor league skipper.
Here’s more on some of the open managerial situations around baseball…
- The Angels have interest in Astros bench coach Joe Espada as a managerial candidate, ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera reports. The 43-year-old Espada previously worked as a third base coach for the Marlins and Yankees before taking his current position in Houston last winter, and Espada has also been a coach for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic and a manager in the Puerto Rican winter league. Espada has ties to Angels GM Billy Eppler, as both worked together with the Yankees in 2014-15, plus Espada briefly played in the Rockies’ minor league system in 2001 when Eppler was a scout in the Colorado organization.
- The Blue Jays are considering Giants VP of player development David Bell and MLB Network analyst Dave Valle as part of their managerial search, as per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter links). As Rosenthal notes, Bell is also a candidate for the Reds’ manager position, and has been mentioned as a potential successor to Bruce Bochy in San Francisco. Before becoming the Giants’ farm director, Bell worked for the Cardinals as a bench coach and assistant hitting coach, the Cubs as a third base coach, and as a manager for the Reds’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates. Valle would be something of an outside-the-box choice, as his only pro managing or coaching experience was one season managing Seattle’s A-ball affiliate in 2014. Since wrapping up his 13-year playing career in 1996, Valle has been a TV and radio broadcaster for the Mariners, as well as a broadcaster for MLB Network since 2009.
- In another tweet, Rosenthal also listed Eric Wedge, John McDonald, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Stubby Clapp as likely candidates for the Blue Jays job. The four names have often been mentioned in connection with the Jays’ search in recent weeks, plus bench coach DeMarlo Hale and Double-A manager John Schneider are also known to be under consideration.
- The Orioles officially announced yesterday that Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette wouldn’t be returning to the club in 2019, though the fact that the team waited until after the season to announce the changes “makes absolutely no sense” to ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (Twitter link). Both Showalter and Duquette were in the last year of their contracts and there was a clear sense that changes would be made in the wake of Baltimore’s disastrous 115-loss season, so in Olney’s view, “valuable time [was] squandered” by the Orioles. Rather than begin their search for a new manager and GM over the last several weeks or months, the O’s will now be competing for candidates with other teams looking to fill managerial or front office vacancies.
Couldn’t care less what Olney (not a particularly strong analytical baseball mind) thinks of whether O’s wasted time. They’ll be just fine, and I imagine the huge vacancy—a GM position with a chance to hire the manager—plus an improving farm will still attract plenty of strong and qualified candidates.
The Angelos family is among the 3 worst owners in baseball. Always meddling.
If I were a strong GM candidate, I’d probably wait for a better situation. The Orioles are a complete gong show.
The “improving farm” is still a bottom 10 system.
For the sake of Blue Jay fans everywhere I really hope the FO doesn’t hire Eric Wedge. Shapiro thinks the world of him for some reason, but CLE and SEA fans will vouch for the fact that the man has no business in any dugout.
Shapiro is all about giving his old buddies a job, so I expect him to be in the dugout next year.
How dare a smart, connected baseball executive hire some people from the vast pool of contacts that he has made over the last few decades!
This kind of talk out of Toronto reminds me that while there are some very savvy Canadian baseball fans, there are also a bunch who just read the garbage churned out by the professional trolls who work for the Toronto Sun.
Pretty much every hire they’e made over the last few years has been very smart.
Eric Wedge will ruin that string for you.
Jays fans don’t read the newspaper. They watch TV and warm up for the inevitable cup toss when a call doesn’t go their way.
Agree, he is an awful manager and is even worse at developing young players. Give Johnny Mac a chance.
Give Sandy Alomar Jr. a chance.
Valle actually managed Single-A Everett the year Jesus Montero got an ice cream sandwich thrown at him….
Joe Espada was the best 3b coach the Marlins had since at least 2003. He has always seemed very intelligent and passionate about the game. I think he would make a great manager
Chris Bosio?
RACIST!
I believe that Snitker incident was the one where Nick Marakakis told Hart and Coppy that if they ever talked like that again to Brian he’d personally kick their asses. Hahha
I remember that happening, but I don’t remember the context of the argument. Cannot find it in the Google archives from 9/29/17 (Game #160) knowing that only a few days later the bottom fell out — Coppy resigned — and all the stories are about it.
Interesting how fortunes can change. I still wonder if the GM is pulling the strings because it’s pretty obvious when some line-up changes should be made and it takes a week to do it.
Let the managers manage for Pete’s sake. If a GM wants to set line-ups and the pitching rotations, then he should apply for that job and sit in the dugout in uniform. Otherwise stick to business.
Olney used to work in Baltimore. He should know what half-assed, nonsensical ‘organization’ they are. I really warrants no comment, as it’s to be expected.
He worked in Baltimore a very long time ago. Did great work as a Yankees beat writer for the New York Times. Now offers little to no meaningful insight as an ESPN “analyst.”
Looks like Shapiro and Atkins want a manager that will reflect Shapiro and Atkins. Guys with either zero major league managerial experience or an ex-Indians manager under Shapiro. Uninspiring, but ok. Next two seasons will be rough anyway.
Did you even bother to read the list?
Did you?
David Bell – no MLB managing experience
Dave Valle – no MLB managing experience
Sandy Alomar – no MLB managing experience
Eric Wedge – Managed under Shapiro
John McDonald – no MLB managing experience
Stubby Clapp – no MLB managing experience
Not sure why I had to point out the obvious since you don’t read anything other than Toronto Star or Globe. Or if you can read at all. Point I made, which will turn out to be correct, is the Jays front office want some say/control over on-field decisions. They can do that with inexperienced guys or Eric Wedge.
Again, next 2 years won’t matter. Jays will be bad regardless as they need their talent to develop at the major league level.
Whomever you hire, let them do their job. The front office should not be pulling the strings. If the FO makes the right hiring decision, they don’t need to micromanage. If they make a bad decision they need to own it and move on. Of course, they might be moving on as well in that case.
acmeants – 100% agree.
I remember seeing Stubby Clapp play in Spring Training in 2000. It’s a great baseball name, in spite of sounding like a STD.
Thank you for the laugh. Man, that guy better get free drinks at every bar he goes to (definitely not from the ladies…)
Lol
And Stubby’s sibling, Rusty Kuntz…
They’ve already been searching. Buster just likes to gang up on the Orioles as much as possible. A former Dodgers executive was in their offices months ago. No doubt they have had many more private meetings with others and didn’t inform Buster of those either.
Coppy was great at assimilating young talent, even after the international fiasco, but he was never meant to be in a leadership role.
Snitker seems more of a AAA manager in the big leagues. Most of the talent the braves have aren’t too much removed from AAA. Would be interesting to see how Snitker does in the playoffs, Just dont go down the “bullpen day” route.
Things have really, really, really worked out better than could have been hoped for in Atlanta. They’ve had an amazing season, and they’ve held on to all their great prospects. Should be a very fun team to watch for a long time.
Buster Olney is a joke. Where does he get off deciding that the O’s had to inform Duquette and Showalter before the season was over rather then wait until after? Why not let them finish the season and inform them right after which is what they did
You misunderstood. What Olney is saying is that they should have fired them before the season ended so that they could have had a head start on searching for replacements. Now, they’ll have to compete with other teams.
This may not get read because I’ve been biting my lip for a week on this…but as a non-Canadian, Ohio-born Jays/Leafs fan for 36-years, these two guys (Shapiro/Atkins) are the absolute worst FO guys in franchise history! The only reason they got to the ALCS in their first year is because it was AAs team!
Other than retaining Happ, Estrada and Smoak, the only decision they didn’t screw the pooch on was trading for Randal Grichuk! Otherwise, they basically got a broke back INF in trade for Happ to the Yankees and a 2-bit nobody from Cleveland for JD! Not to mention trading the best closer in the game for a has been/never will be because of one off field incident that hasn’t even been decided yet!
You watch, they’ll bring in wedge cause that was the goal from day one and then they’ll trade bichette and Vlad, Jr for some more broke ass prospects they think might be good for a year about a decade from now!
I hate Shapiro and Atkins…and as articulate as they’ve been, one thing they’ve proven is their predictability in making the dumbest moves in baseball! We don’t have another 25-years to be worthy again.
You nailed it binarydaddy, agree 100%
John McDonald and DeMarlo Hale would be both be inspired choices for the Toronto Manager role. Recycling the old Cleveland connection Eric Wedge would be a disaster. The fact they’re even considering that shows #Shapkins should be fired.