Braves' new hitting coach knew the slug would come. It has, and it's been needed

New York Times

27-04-2025

PHOENIX — The Atlanta Braves fired hitting coach Kevin Seitzer in the fall after a 10-season run that included seven division titles, a World Series championship in 2021 and a historically strong offense in 2023.
They replaced him with Tim Hyers, and seven games into the season they were 0-7 with an offense that was the majors' worst, batting .151 with a .485 OPS and 14 runs.
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It would've been understandable if Hyers had begun breaking things out of frustration by the end of that seven-game season-opening trip, or maybe after his hitters struck out 19 times in an April 16 loss at Toronto that left the Braves with a 5-13 record and a .184 average with runners in scoring position.
But he didn't.
'He's the same dude every day, good or bad,' Braves first baseman Matt Olson said.
The same during that 0-7 start, when the Braves were swept on the road by the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers, and the same in the nearly three weeks since, when the Braves have gone 12-7 while batting over .270 with an OPS above .800.
They've won seven of eight games including a thrilling 8-7, 10-inning win at Arizona on Saturday night for their first road-series clinch, despite a four-homer game from the Diamondbacks' Eugenio Suárez, whose last was a tying leadoff shot in the ninth off closer Raisel Iglesias.
Braves win a game none of us will ever forget! Buckle up for these highlights! pic.twitter.com/8nxQSRptIW
— Atlanta Braves Radio Network 🎙️ (@BravesRadioNet) April 27, 2025
Olson scored on a wild pitch in the 10th, and the Braves held on to win when third baseman Austin Riley made a spectacular game-ending play with a runner at third. He fielded a Randal Grichuk grounder at the back of the dirt on a bad hop and, from the chalk, fired a low, two-hop throw to Olson, who scooped it before Grichuk's foot hit the base.
'Get it, catch it and get rid of it as quick as I can,' Riley said. 'Actually, I work on that bounce throw in practice because it's going to happen. You know, at third base you get some weird hops, you catch balls going back, forward. So I try to work on different angle throws, throwing the ball on the hop, on the run, everything. And it worked out.'
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The play was initially ruled safe and would've scored the tying run, but it was overturned upon review. Game over.
'Obviously, Suárez had a hell of a game,' Olson said. 'And to come out on top, after a little back and forth, it was a good win. He had a hell of a day at the plate, but putting one in the win column is more important.'
The Braves had the second-best OPS in baseball since the eighth game of the season (their first win), and they raised it again Saturday. Their hitting coach knew they had it in them.
'I felt confidence in a couple hits being contagious in a couple games when things went our way,' Hyers said of the Braves' offensive turnaround. 'I think the guys are kind of finding their groove and swinging at better pitches and staying to the big part of the field a lot more. Getting the order to turn over and getting some quality at-bats back-to-back, instead of one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake.'
The Braves lead the National League with 29 homers in their past 19 games, including three Saturday from Marcell Ozuna, Sean Murphy and Eli White.
Suárez homered three times against starter Grant Holmes, the third chasing Holmes from the game in the sixth inning with the Braves trailing 6-2. White continued his recent torrid stretch with a two-run homer in the seventh to get the Braves within 6-4.
White has made three consecutive outfield starts, and the journeyman has two homers and seven RBIs in those games.
The Braves scored three more runs in the eighth for a 7-6 lead, on an Ozzie Albies RBI single and Michael Harris II's two-run double to the center-field warning track.
The fact Braves manager Brian Snitker left Holmes in to face Suárez for a third time says plenty about the state of Atlanta's bullpen, as did Suárez's fourth homer, off Iglesias, who has a 6.30 ERA and five homers allowed in 10 appearances. That's one more homer than he gave up in all of 2024.
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Snitker said if they have a lead of three runs or fewer Sunday, Iglesias would be back in to pitch the ninth.
Despite their erratic bullpen, and injuries and mediocre performances from much of their starting rotation, the Braves feel a lot better about their overall situation because their offense is again potent enough to keep them in most games and win plenty of slugfests.
A week into the season, after the sweeps at San Diego and L.A., a turnaround anytime soon seemed unlikely, particularly after left fielder Jurickson Profar — the only free agent signed to a multiyear contract by the Braves during the winter — was slapped with an 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension after the opening series.
But Riley started to heat up during the Braves' first homestand, and by the second homestand, so had Olson and Harris.
'I mean, we ran into a gauntlet the first two series,' Hyers said. 'Padres and the Dodgers were at full force. We just came out a little sluggish, and they were at peak performance and put it to us. No excuses, I mean they put it to us. And I think once you got back (to Atlanta) and got settled, got back into a routine, and the guys have settled in now.'
Two other developments have been key elements in the Braves' offensive resurgence. First, they activated Murphy from the injured list before the 10th game of the season, and the veteran catcher immediately added another big power threat, slugging over .600 with seven homers in his first 15 games.
The other addition: Alex Verdugo, a veteran outfielder who signed as a free agent in the last week of spring training and spent a couple of weeks in Triple A getting in shape.
Since joining the Braves at the start of last week's 5-1 homestand, he's been entrenched in left field and atop the lineup, where he provides a spark with what teammates call consistently professional at-bats.
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'My impression (of Verdugo) is awesome,' Snitker said before Saturday's game. 'He's added exactly what we thought he would, which is no-panic, really good at-bats at the top of the order. I think he's been good for the whole team, witnessing how he goes about his at-bats. He's a really good athlete, too. It kind of coincides with us kind of getting off the mat here a little bit, is getting him up here and playing him every day. It's been great.'
With Hyers, there were never any meltdowns when the Braves were at their worst. No shouting at hitters' meetings, no abrupt changes in anything that Braves hitters had worked on with Hyers since the beginning of spring training. Hyers comes across as perhaps the most mild-mannered, mellow coach who's ever put on a uniform.
'There was never any panic in him,' Olson said. 'If there was, it was never portrayed to us. Which, half of being a big-league hitting coach is being a therapist for 13 players. And it's a lot of different personalities and swings and game planning. You have to juggle. And he's done a good job.'
Braves players knew Hyers was a hitting coach on World Series-winning teams with Boston and Texas, so they didn't feel any need to reassure him. They were in it with him, and he with them.
'We all went through it together, and I think that's what a good hitting coach does,' Riley said. 'He has remained the same, and there was no panic whatsoever. Through those stretches he came in the exact same every day, and I think that's why he's been so highly talked about. I think he's been great, I've enjoyed working with him. If he did stress, we sure didn't see it whatsoever.'
The Braves lineup, much of it the same as the unit that set a major-league slugging percentage record (.501) in 2023, was mired in the bottom third of the league in almost every category just 1 1/2 weeks ago. Coming off an injury-plagued 2024 season, the weak offensive start to the new season had plenty of Braves followers upset.
'At the same time, we faced some really good pitchers early,' Harris said. 'So that's also another reason to not panic. So, it's just looking up from here, and we're keeping an even-keel mindset.'
(Photo of Ozzie Albies congratulating Sean Murphy on his home run Saturday: Norm Hall / Getty Images)