Latest news with #BrianSnitker
New York Times
12 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Marcell Ozuna trade appears inevitable as Braves add third catcher; Austin Riley could return Tuesday
ATLANTA – When the Braves added veteran Sandy León as a third catcher Monday, it underscored their commitment to alternating catchers Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin in the catching and DH roles for the forseeable future. It was also another indication that slumping DH Marcell Ozuna will be traded before the July 31 deadline. Advertisement Ozuna was out of the lineup for the fourth time in five games Monday for a series-opening 9-5 win against the San Francisco Giants. Baldwin DH'd and had a career-high six RBIs on three hits, including two doubles. He's the first Braves rookie to have at least five RBIs in a game since Kelly Johnson's six at Cincinnati on June 17, 2005. Wes Helms has the Atlanta rookie record with seven RBIs at Milwaukee on Aug. 8, 2004. 'It's cool to be even close to that record,' Baldwin said, smiling about that and even more when asked about León, one of his mentors, joining the team. 'He was a huge help to me last year in Triple A. Even in spring training, our lockers were right next to each other. He's incredible. 'It was awesome to have him today, to see him and catch up. He's still helping me with the game and everything, so it's cool to have him back.' Braves manager Brian Snitker said that leadership and experience were reasons the Braves added León, though not the main one. 'Bringing Sandy in, a guy with his experience, he's kind of like another coach also,' Snitker said of León, a 12-year veteran who last played in the majors in 2023 with the Texas Rangers, and went 3-for-6 with a double in three games in the 2018 World Series for the champion Boston Red Sox. Mostly, the Braves wanted to protect themselves with a third catcher in case Baldwin or Murphy had to leave a game he was catching, which would require the Braves to move the other from DH to catcher and lose the DH spot the rest of the way. That would result in double-switching for the remainder of that game, difficult if there were plenty of innings left or a game went to extras. Otherwise, the pitcher would have to hit. 'We've been dodging having to put the DH in the game (to catch), and two nights ago it was really close to happening,' Snitker said, referring to a situation Saturday against the Yankees when the Braves nearly pinch-ran for Murphy after a seventh inning of what was a one-run game at the time. Advertisement Snitker said he talked to general manager Alex Anthopoulos about a third catcher, and since he intended to continue using Baldwin and Murphy together, Ozuna would only start occasionally as long as he remained with the team. Atlanta designated outfielder Stuart Fairchild for assignment to open a spot for León, 36. León is not much of a hitter, but his defense remains solid, as does his clubhouse reputation. He has been at Triple-A Gwinnett for two seasons and was credited by Braves coach and former catcher Eddie Perez for doing a lot of the work that helped Baldwin make strides there last season. At spring training, Baldwin and León sat at their locker and had long discussions most mornings. If León appears in a game for the Braves, it'll be the seventh MLB team he's played for. 'He's been through a lot of big games and was really impressive in spring training,' Snitker said. 'So, if we're going to do that (Baldwin and Murphy splitting DH/catching duties) most of the time, then I think it's good to have that. With the outfield being kind of solidified with three guys; they're gonna play every day. 'Stu (Fairchild) was a big part before Jurikson (Profar) came back (from an 80-game PED suspension). But now there's really nothing for him to do. So we were able to do this and add the third catcher.' Baldwin has 15 hits (six extra-base hits) and 13 RBIs in his past 12 games. Monday, he hit a three-run double in a five-run first inning, a two-run single in the fourth, and an RBI double in the sixth on a ball misplayed by two outfielders. Playing every day makes it easier to stay in a groove, he said. After his OPS dipped to .792 on June 18, he's boosted it back to .846, second among MLB qualified rookies and first among NL rookies. 'It's been incredible,' right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. said through an interpreter, regarding Baldwin's performance in his first season. 'And I think everyone's seen it, and y'all have seen it. Like we say, he's a horse.'. Advertisement Ozuna, in the final year of his contract, had a .922 OPS after his first 30 games this season despite playing through a hip injury. But in his past 62 games, he's hit just .212 with eight homers, 61 strikeouts and a .669 OPS. He and reliever Raisel Iglesias, also on an expiring contract, are the Braves who seem most likely to be traded before the July 31 deadline. Reliever Pierce Johnson is a possibility, but he's been productive for the Braves since they got him from Colorado at the 2023 trade deadline, and has an affordable $7 million club option for 2026. Austin Riley is eligible to come off the 10-day injured list Tuesday, and Snitker said the third baseman felt good after going through an extensive workout Monday that included some infield drills to simulate the play on which he got hurt. The Braves will wait to see how he feels Tuesday morning before making a decision. Riley's been out with a lower abdominal strain since injuring it throwing across his body after charging in to barehand a slow roller at St. Louis on July 11. He took batting practice for several days, did fielding drills and ran the bases without any difficulty. They added a drill Monday with similar throws like the one he got hurt on. Rookie fill-in Nacho Alvarez Jr., 22, has made a great impression with his defense in six games at third base. He's looked like a different player than last season when he made his MLB debut and played seven games at second base and one at third, with his defense at second understandably shaky. He said the difference is comfortability at third base, the position he played before and after he was drafted by the Braves in 2022, before shifting to shortstop in 2023 and splitting time between shortstop and third in 2024. Alvarez played just one game at second base in the minors before he was called up in July 2024 to fill in for an injured Ozzie Albies at second base. He struggled at the position and at the plate before being sent back to Triple A. Advertisement 'I had never played pro ball at second base, so last year when I came up I was learning everything on the fly,' Alvarez said. 'It's pretty tough. Honestly, it feels so comfortable over (at third). I love third base. I mean, it's just so much fun. I grew up watching the greats – (Nolan) Arenado is one of my favorites. 'It just feels so natural. I feel like I'm just riding a bike every time I'm over there.' On Sunday, Snitker predicted a long major league career for Alvarez, adding that versatility he's shown defensively will be a key. He hasn't shown an ability to hit at the major league level yet, though he does have a .305 average with 11 homers and an .889 OPS in 75 Triple-A games over parts of two seasons. 'That's probably gonna be his role, is to be that Swiss Army Knife guy,' Snitker said. Alvarez was at major league spring training but missed most of it due to a wrist injury that lingered into the season, which he thinks has been part of the reason he hasn't found his 'rhythm' at the plate. He didn't play his first game this season until June 9, and he was in the majors July 11. He said the wrist didn't improve until he received an injection from a hand specialist. 'And ever since then, I've felt really good,' he said.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Report: 2 ‘Strong Candidates' Revealed to Become Atlanta Braves Manager in 2026
The Atlanta Braves came into the 2025 MLB season hoping to compete for a World Series title in what was expected to be Brian Snitker's final year with the team. Now that Atlanta is expected to be a seller at the MLB trade deadline, candidates are reportedly already emerging to replace Snitker. USA Today's Bob Nightengale reports that former Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker and Snitker's bench coach Walt Weiss are 'expected to be strong candidates' to become the Braves manager in 2026. Related: : 778-637 (.550) as the Atlanta Braves skipper Atlanta has had recent success with promoting from within the organization. Before being hired as the Braves' manager in 2016, Snitker spent his entire coaching career with the organization. He worked his way up from a roving instructor to a third-base coach and later became the club's Triple-A manager. He'll retire as the third-winningest manager in team history. Weiss and Schumaker both have managerial experience with mixed results. Weiss was hired by Atlanta following his stint as the Colorado Rockies skipper (2013-16). After being fired by Colorado, where he never won more than 75 games in a season, Weiss returned to Atlanta, where his playing career ended. Related: Schumaker spent two seasons as the Miami Marlins manager. He was named National League Manager of the Year in 2023 after leading the team to an unexpected 84-win season and a playoff spot. The organization restructured as part of a rebuild the following season, and he was fired after posting a 62-100 record. A World Series champion with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he spent the majority of his playing career, Schumaker is expected to be one of the most coveted MLB managerial candidates this winter. Related Headlines Take a Look at Nike's Incredible Pro-Family Tribute for British Open Champ Scottie Scheffler Tennessee Titans QB Out For Season: 5 Early Replacement Options 5 NASCAR Drivers Having Breakout Seasons in 2025 Why Baltimore Orioles' Adley Rutschman May Face an Uncertain Future with Team
New York Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Braves' bullpen meltdown, big nights for Joey Wentz and Ozzie Albies, Marcell Ozuna's status
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves' once-solid but increasingly shaky bullpen must be reinforced if they're serious about overcoming already extremely long odds to make a postseason push. But it remains to be seen if they'll be buyers or sellers at the July 31 trade deadline, and after Saturday's bullpen meltdown in a 12-9 loss to the New York Yankees, one wonders if they might be leaning more toward the latter. Advertisement The bullpen spoiled a four-inning scoreless start by Joey Wentz and a five-RBI night from Ozzie Albies, with Braves relievers allowing 12 runs in the last five innings. 'It was just our inability to close out innings,' said manager Brian Snitker, whose team has to go 45-20 the rest of the way to win 88 games, which still might not be enough to win a wild-card spot. 'We were scoring some runs. I felt good last weekend in St. Louis; I saw signs of life with the offense, and we played some really good baseball. '(The Yankees are) a really good club. I mean, it's 27 hard outs against a team like this, and we just couldn't close innings off after the fourth.' The decisive blow was Trent Grisham's tie-breaking ninth-inning grand slam off potential trade candidate Raisel Iglesias, who hadn't allowed a run in 15 appearances but has a 5.12 ERA in the final year of his contract. Five of six Braves relievers gave up at least one run, including Anthony Volpe's homers off Wander Suero and Dylan Lee and a Cody Bellinger homer off Pierce Johnson. The Braves were 4-for-10 with runners in scoring position, but after loading the bases with one out in the seventh inning, they left them loaded when Michael Harris II struck out and Nick Allen popped out. The Yankees tied it 8-8 an inning later on Volpe's homer on a two-strike hanging slider left over the middle by Lee. Albies had another encouraging game for the Braves, to say the least, driving in five runs, including his second three-run homer in two nights against the Yankees. OZZIE WE LOVE HIM@ozzie | #BravesCountry — Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 20, 2025 It was his ninth of the season and 150th of his career, and like his homer in Friday's 7-3 win, it was just inside the right-field foul pole and came with Sean Murphy and Drake Baldwin on base. Albies added a two-run single in the fifth and has nine RBIs in the first two games of the series, after driving in two runs in the last 22 games before the All-Star break and posting a .506 OPS in that span. Advertisement He said his swing began feeling better in the Athletics series at Sacramento in the final week before the break. 'I kept working hard, and it's paying off,' he said. All nine of the switch hitter's homers have been from the left side. Albies missed two months last season with a fractured left wrist and hit from the right side only upon returning in September. He didn't take batting practice from the right side for six months but said the wrist was strong during his struggles this season. 'I cannot use that as an excuse,' he said. 'The strength is there. It's just, when your swing is not good, you can't put up numbers and you can't hit the ball hard. It's a feel. You gotta feel it. It's a round ball with a round bat. You've got to work on it every day.' Baldwin had a two-out double and Murphy walked in the fourth before Albies hit the next pitch out. It moved him into ninth place on the Braves' Atlanta-era hits list with 1,024. 'It's good to see that maybe he had the four days off and relaxed a little bit and cleared his mind,' Snitker said. 'Hopefully, by doing that, it'll be something that starts him on the path of a really good next 60-some games.' Harris gave the Braves a 1-0 lead in the third with a 438-foot homer off Will Warren, the seventh of the season for the center fielder and his first since June 13. Money Mike puts us on the board! 💸@MoneyyyMikeee | #BravesCountry — Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 19, 2025 Harris hit .133 with a .330 OPS in 26 games between homers, and he entered batting .211 with the lowest OBP (.234) and lowest OPS (.550) among all MLB qualifiers. With his two-out walk in the fourth, he also snapped an astonishing streak of 178 walk-free plate appearances since May 18, the longest such streak by a Brave in at least a quarter-century. He last homered and walked in the same game on April 19 against the Minnesota Twins. Advertisement Nine years and three other organizations since the Braves selected Wentz with the 40th pick of the 2016 MLB Draft, the left-hander made his Atlanta home debut Saturday, and plenty of fans had to be wondering why it took so long. Wentz was nearly as impressive as he'd been out of the bullpen in his Braves debut a week earlier at the St. Louis Cardinals, when he had six strikeouts in three scoreless and hitless innings — the most strikeouts in franchise history for a Brave making his debut out of the bullpen. This time, he fired four scoreless innings with two strikeouts and two hits in his first start at any level since 2023, giving him seven scoreless innings for Atlanta with eight strikeouts and two walks. Because he'd thrown a season-high 59 pitches and the Braves had a long four-run fourth inning, Snitker decided not to send him back out for the fifth; the original plan was to allow him to face one batter: Grisham. He has done enough in two games to earn another start next week. 'Oh, yeah,' Snitker said. 'We're gradually getting him stretched back out as a starter. And I think he's done a really good job, obviously. We're kind of building him up as we go, and he's been really, really good.' Wentz, a Kansas native, was struggling in Double A in 2019 when the Braves dealt him to the Detroit Tigers with outfielder Travis Demeritte for closer Shane Greene at the trade deadline. He made his MLB debut in 2022 with Detroit, went 5-17 with a 5.81 ERA in 70 games (26 starts) over three seasons and was claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates in June 2024. He was again claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Twins this June, posted a 15.75 ERA in six relief appearances and was waived once again. This time, he was claimed by the Braves. And in two appearances with the franchise that drafted him, Wentz has looked like a new man, using pinpoint control of an improved cutter – after he tinkered with his grip on the pitch — and a mid-90s fastball, with occasional curveballs. Advertisement 'Before I got here, and really since I've been here, just trying to simplify the game, simplify the matchups, not really dig too deep on anything, trust my stuff and just kind of get to a place where I'm trying to execute as many pitches as I can,' Wentz said. 'However the team sees fit to use me, I'll try to be available for any role. So, if (starting) is what it is, yeah, and if not, I'm good with throwing bulk out of the pen. But I thought tonight was personally a good night for me. And it would be great to kind of try to get back in the starting role.' When Snitker told the Braves before Friday's game that he was going to make lineup decisions that gave the team the best chance to win that day, he didn't take Marcell Ozuna aside for a discussion. 'I didn't have to,' Snitker said. 'I talked to the team, and it's pretty much put out there what my feelings were for going forward. (Ozuna's) great. I mean, he's been through all this, and he's not gonna not play. I'm going to pick my spots, and the other two guys … are doing so good, I can't not play them.' The other two are hot-hitting catchers Murphy and Baldwin, who've handled the catching and DH duties for three consecutive games and four of the past five. Ozuna started 89 of the first 92 games at DH, missing a three-game series at the Toronto Blue Jays in April to have his balky hip checked out and not leaving the lineup again until July 6, when Baldwin DH'd one game. But with Ozuna hitting .172 with three homers and a puny .547 OPS in his past 35 games before Saturday, expect to see him on the bench plenty as long as Baldwin and Murphy keep performing. Ozuna struck out as a pinch hitter to end the game Saturday. This will increase speculation that Ozuna, a pending free agent, could be traded. He has trade-veto rights as a 10-and-5 player (10 years of service, five with current team), but would Ozuna want to stay if he doesn't think he'll play? That wouldn't be a good note on which to enter free agency. (Photo of Raisel Iglesias: Brett Davis / Imagn Images)
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Braves star Ronald Acuña Jr. stuns Yankees with incredible throw in Atlanta's win
ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. caught the New York Yankees off-guard with a spectacular throw to end the third inning in the Atlanta Braves' series-opening 7-3 victory Friday night. The All-Star right fielder threw out Jorbit Vivas at third base when Vivas was trying to tag up on a deep fly to the corner in right. 'His accuracy is stupid,' Braves manager Brian Snitker said. 'He's a weapon in right field. His arm is so strong and accurate, and the ball carries, release is good. He's special out there.' Acuña caught the ball just in front of the warning track with his back to the infield. He spun and fired a throw that reached third base in the air just in time Nacho Alvarez to tag a slowing Vivas, who ignored third-base coach Luis Rojas' signal to slide. 'I just always try to anticipate those plays,' Acuña said through an interpreter. 'That's really what I always try to focus on, anticipating the play before it happens. I really wasn't trying to do anything besides that. Thankfully, I have a good arm.' Alvarez was casual as the throw approached in an attempt to fool Vivas, who would likely have been safe if he had run hard all the way and slid. '(Vivas) got deked,' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. 'That just can't happen. I did that all my career at third base. Just kind of play dumb, play dead. And that's what (Vivas) read. The body language of Alvarez there, just deked him. He knew it was a deep fly ball, so it caught up to him. ... It's a lesson that that can't happen on a baseball field, especially in that situation.'
Al Arabiya
12-07-2025
- Sport
- Al Arabiya
Braves Place Third Baseman Austin Riley on 10-Day Injured List With an Abdominal Strain
ST. LOUIS – The Atlanta Braves placed two-time All-Star third baseman Austin Riley on the 10-day injured list Saturday with a strained right abdomen. Riley was lifted for a pinch hitter in the fourth inning of the Braves' 6-5 win at St. Louis on Friday night. He said he first noticed discomfort while fielding a Pedro Pagés bunt in the second inning and it got worse on a Willson Contreras groundout in the third. 'It's a weird spot. I have to make that play all the time and never have any issues so I don't know really what happened,' Riley said. 'I went through my normal routine of preparing and I feel like I do a good job of making sure I'm ready.' After Sunday's game in St. Louis, Atlanta will host the All-Star Game on Tuesday and then come out of the All-Star break with a three-game series against the New York Yankees starting Friday. 'Obviously we got the break coming up,' Riley said. 'I think that that'll be huge getting some rest there and hopefully be back in no time.' Riley is hitting .274 this season and entered Saturday ranked third in the NL with 104 hits behind Trea Turner and Manny Machado. He has hit 14 home runs with 48 RBIs. He was an All-Star in 2022 and 2023. Manager Brian Snitker said he noticed Riley still seemed uncomfortable when the two shared an elevator Saturday morning. He moved Ronald Acuña Jr. down to third in the lineup to beef up the middle of the order with Riley out. Jurickson Profar, who returned from a suspension on July 1, took over the leadoff spot from Acuña, who missed the first two months of the season while recovering from a knee injury. 'We just keep battling through things like that. I mean we've done it for over a year,' Snitker said. 'I hate it for Austin too because he's swinging the bat pretty good.' The Braves recalled infielder Nacho Alvarez Jr. from Triple-A Gwinnett and inserted him at third base for Riley. Alvarez, who appeared in eight games for the Braves last July, was hitting .361 in 11 games with Gwinnett. He was a fifth-round draft pick in 2022. Atlanta also activated left-handed pitcher Joey Wentz after selecting him on waivers from Minnesota. Right-hander Nathan Wiles was optioned to Gwinnett.
