{"id":15310,"date":"2018-10-15T11:27:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=15310"},"modified":"2018-10-15T11:27:46","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T15:27:46","slug":"atlanta-braves-extend-brian-snitker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2018\/10\/15\/atlanta-braves-extend-brian-snitker\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Braves Extend Manager Brian Snitker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After finishing as one of the surprise teams in Major League Baseball, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/atlanta-braves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Atlanta Braves<\/a> officially announced Monday that manager <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/snitkbr99.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brian Snitker<\/a><\/strong> will be returning. Atlanta finished with a 90-72 record in 2018, capturing its first NL East title since 2013. The Braves were eliminated in the NLDS by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-dodgers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>, but the season has to be considered a success after the team surpassed pre-season expectations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Atlanta <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Braves?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Braves<\/a> and manager Brian Snitker have agreed to terms on a two-year contract with a club option for the 2021 season: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CsReyEyU9x\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/CsReyEyU9x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Atlanta Braves (@Braves) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Braves\/status\/1051841029777838082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Atlanta Braves Extend Manager Brian Snitker<\/h2>\n<p>Snitker officially took over the role of manager on an interim basis during the 2016 season. After a disappointing 9-28 start under then-manager <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gonzafr99.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fredi Gonzalez<\/a><\/strong>, Snitker led the Braves to a 59-65 mark the rest of the way.<\/p>\n<p>The 2017 season brought along more struggles as Atlanta finished 72-90 in Snitker&#8217;s first full season at the helm. The Braves battled through an ineffective rotation and injuries to first baseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/freemfr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Freddie Freeman<\/a> <\/strong>and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kempma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Kemp<\/a><\/strong>. There were bright spots as <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/albieoz01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ozzie Albies<\/a> <\/strong>made his debut and showed flashes of his potential at second base. Lefty <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/n\/newcose01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean Newcomb<\/a><\/strong> also debuted and posted the third-lowest ERA of a Braves pitcher with 10 or more starts in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Though the team results were disappointing, blaming Snitker did not make much sense. It was clear for much of the season that Atlanta needed a lot of work done to the roster, and the attention of management was towards the future.<\/p>\n<h3>New GM Arrives<\/h3>\n<p>As fans shifted their attention to a 2018 season, a scandal rocked the franchise that had the potential to turn things sideways. <strong>John Coppolella<\/strong>, then GM for the Braves, resigned amid allegations and investigation of improper dealings in the international market. As a result, Coppolella would eventually be banned from baseball for life. Atlanta was also stripped of many prospects, including prized prospects\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=maitan000kev&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Maitan<\/a> <\/strong>and Korean SS <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=bae---000ji-&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ji-Hwan Bae<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Atlanta was able to stabilize the outfall from the situation with the hiring of <strong>Alex Anthopoulos<\/strong> as GM and executive vice president. The hiring of Anthopoulos was seen as a great move by many around baseball, and the only question remaining was whether or not Anthopoulos would bring in his own manager to replace Snitker.<\/p>\n<p>Following the success of 2018, keeping Snitker made the most sense, and the team has now locked up its manager through 2020. The extension also includes a club option for 2021. Now its time to get to work and improve on the success of a 90-win season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"QfPP1gEKTPVoY2QGMU01hA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1043113712\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'QfPP1gEKTPVoY2QGMU01hA',sig:'59AoAEkCUEylRAKt36zXp7RPwK7k_YEM-bFzgskGZWI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1043113712',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Atlanta Braves officially announced Monday that they are bringing back manager Brian Snitker on a two-year contract extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":15316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,35],"tags":[48,68,291,206,69],"class_list":["post-15310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-braves","category-news","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-baseball","tag-brian-snitker","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-mlb"],"modified_by":"Paul Harvey","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}