Latest news with #FrediGonzález
Washington Post
7 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Brian Snitker excited to reunite with his old friend and former Braves boss Fredi González
ATLANTA — Braves manager Brian Snitker knows the unique nature of Atlanta's coaching change this week, but he's also excited about reuniting with an old friend. Former Braves manager Fredi González will be the team's new third base coach , replacing Matt Tuiasosopo. The team announced the change Monday. The Braves opened a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday.
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Can Braves get a jolt from firing third-base coach? Plus: How Judge's mentality stands out
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. What do the Braves' coaching change, Ryan Yarbrough's delivery and Coby Mayo's base running have in common? It's the word of the day: 'unorthodox.' I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup! When a team struggles, the order of firings usually goes like this: hitting/pitching coach > manager > wholesale changes in the front office. It's usually not … the third-base coach. But in Atlanta, the Braves have reassigned Matt Tuiasosopo. The (now-former) third-base coach will be a minor-league infield coordinator, replaced at the big-league club by a familiar face: Fredi González, who managed the team from 2011-2016 (and was previously the third-base coach from 2003-2006 under Bobby Cox). The quotes from Braves GM and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous were pretty straightforward: The move was the result of some recent bad send decisions. 'There's been some aggressive sends, and that's part of the job,' Anthopoulos said. 'But the results, from my standpoint — and in talking to (manager Brian Snitker) he understood and he ultimately agreed — I felt like we could do better.' González, as David O'Brien reports, was recently working as an umpire evaluator (which should add a very funny dynamic to the next argument he has with an ump). Whether a change at third-base coach will do the job or not, the Braves need something to change. After starting the season 0-7, they battled back to a .500 record at 21-21 by May 13. Alas, since then, they're 6-10, and their 27-31 mark is the fourth-worst record in the NL. Leftover notes from Saturday's Yankees-Dodgers broadcast on Fox: Aaron Judge: New York hitting coach James Rowson worked with Hall of Famers Joe Mauer in Minnesota and Miguel Cabrera in Detroit, yet says Judge stands out even above them in the way he is never satisfied, always looking for an edge. Judge doesn't necessarily view himself the way we do, as one of the best players in the game. He sees it as his responsibility to take nothing for granted, even past success against specific pitchers. As Rowson put it, 'If the story was over today, it would be one of the greatest stories in baseball. And he's still writing the story.' Landon Knack: The Dodgers righty weighed just over 230 pounds at the end of the World Series. In part because as a rookie, he was over-indulging in the high-quality food available to major-leaguers. Knack determined he was too heavy — he wasn't recovering well enough from outings and felt sluggish on the mound. His goal was to get down to about 215 pounds, but he went a little too far, dropping as low as 206. He is now at about 210, and had to readjust to his body now that he is moving differently, quicker than before. He has spent the last six weeks working on his delivery, developing new, simple cues. Paul Goldschmidt: His struggles before the All-Star Game last season now look like an aberration. The 37-year-old's revival after the break and continued dominance against left-handed pitching convinced the Yankees he was still a force, and he has rewarded their faith. His .302 expected batting average is below his actual .333, but still in the top 10 percent of the league. And he has reduced his strikeout rate by more than 10 percent, going from a career-high level last season to a career-low. Trent Grisham: When the Yankees acquired Grisham in the Juan Soto trade, they figured that between injuries and days off for other outfielders, he would play at least three days a week. It turned out that Grisham made only 52 starts and batted .190, leaving the Yankees with a decision on whether to even offer him a contract for 2025. They did, with Grisham accepting a pay cut from $5.5 million to $5 million. Grisham said the lesser salary wasn't difficult to accept. 'If I want more money,' he said, 'play better.' Dalton Rushing/Will Smith: Pretty rare that both of a team's catchers come from the same school, in this case Louisville. The Dodgers took Smith 32nd in 2016, Rushing 40th in 2022. Rushing projects as an offensive weapon from the left side. His defense, while improving, is still below-average. The Dodgers, though, expect to play him more than they did Austin Barnes, enabling Smith to possibly avoid the second-half drop-offs he experienced the past three seasons. Smith BA/OPS 2022-24 Pre-All-Star: .284/.855 Post-All-Star: .234/.704 Ben Rice: Decided in the middle of last season that he had more room to fill out, and that it would only help him to get stronger. To increase his muscle mass, Rice didn't embark upon a more intense weight-lifting program. After consulting with Yankees dietitian Drew Weisberg, he determined that he just needed to eat more. He has since added about 10 pounds, going from the 215-to-220 range to 225-230. On the most recent episode of 'The Roundtable,' the crew did me a favor, talking about a couple of topics from the weekend that I ran out of space for in Monday's Windup. The first: Corbin Burnes is injured. We still don't know exactly how bad, but he isn't joining the Diamondbacks on their six-game road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati. Instead, he stayed back in Arizona for an MRI. We'll know more when manager Torey Lovullo meets with the press later this afternoon in Atlanta. Advertisement Things aren't looking great in Phoenix. Expected to be a playoff contender, the D-Backs now have the same record as the Nationals (28-31). The second: What on earth was Coby Mayo doing with this soccer flop on Saturday afternoon? — Sox On 35th (@VideosOn35th) May 31, 2025 The intent seems clear: try to get an obstruction call and be awarded second base. But if you're gonna do that, you have to be a better actor, because that was pretty flagrant. In the immediate aftermath, there was some yelling, a couple of light shoves, and the benches cleared. After the game, Mayo had this to say: '(I) thought I was in the baseline, just trying to get some contact. I didn't mean for it to escalate, I wasn't trying to do that, it just did.' Well, yeah. More podcasts: The 'Rates & Barrels' crew catch up on what was a very newsy weekend. In 2018, Ryan Yarbrough finished fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting, going 16-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 38 games (six starts) for the Tampa Bay Rays. That's the entirety of the graffiti on the 'awards' column on Yarbrough's Baseball Reference page. He hasn't ever led the league in anything (unless you count the seven hit-by-pitches in 2020). That's not to say Yarbrough hasn't been good for the Yankees, but he has mostly been 'just a guy,' at least from a stats standpoint. His career high in bWAR is 1.4 (2019, when half of his 28 appearances were starts). But seven years later, not only is he still around, the 33-year-old is having a resurgence. After serving mostly in the bullpen for the Rays, Royals, Dodgers and Blue Jays in recent years, Yarbrough is not only starting again, but he's doing it for the reigning AL champs. And he's thriving — after replacing Carlos Carrasco, Yarbrough is 3-0 with a 2.83 ERA in five starts, holding opposing hitters to a .176 ERA. That includes a six-inning success over those Dodgers on Sunday night to help the Yankees avoid a sweep. Advertisement Remember: The Yankees' rotation is already down Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Marcus Stroman. So this sort of success from Yarbrough has been a major boost for a team with World Series aspirations. Brendan Kuty has an article on Yarbrough today, telling us more about the success story — and his unorthodox delivery. More Yankees: After tweaking his hamstring on Sunday, Luke Weaver will likely be placed on the IL today. He is expected to miss about four weeks, per reports. Last Wednesday, we talked a little bit about the massive season Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is putting together. He has not slowed down, currently tied for the league lead in home runs with 23. Tyler Kepner dug a little deeper to tell us just what rare company Raleigh is in. Trevor Story is finally healthy, but he hasn't been producing. How much patience will the Red Sox have? Did you know the Cardinals had the league's best record in May? Their depth is about to be put to the test now, as they'll play 28 games in 29 days. Drew Pomeranz hadn't pitched in the big leagues since 2021. He's just one example of how the Cubs are leaving no stone unturned in their search for pitching depth. In this week's Power Rankings, we get the All-Star conversation started by suggesting a worthy candidate on each team. Authorities have identified the person who made threats to Lance McCullers Jr.'s family. It was an 'inebriated bettor.' No charges have yet been filed, and the man was said to be apologetic. Eno Sarris ranks starting pitchers for the rest of the 2025 season, if you're looking for some fantasy baseball help. Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The newser on the federal investigation into a group licensing firm created by the MLBPA and other players associations. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Alex Anthopoulos on Braves' slow start, AJ Smith-Shawver controversy, RISP woes
ATLANTA — After the Atlanta Braves announced Monday that they had demoted third-base coach Matt Tuiasosopo to minor-league infield coordinator and hired former Atlanta manager and third-base coach Fredi González to replace him, Alex Anthopoulos discussed that change as well as several other issues surrounding the struggling team. Advertisement Anthopoulos, the Braves' general manager and president of baseball operations, has seen the team sputter offensively and deal with several injuries and an 80-game PED suspension for Jurickson Profar, the only big free-agent signing they made last winter. Atlanta sits in fourth place in the NL East with a 27-31 record, 9 1/2 games behind first-place New York before the Mets' late game Monday. The Braves' run of seven consecutive postseason appearances appears in peril. Here are some of Anthopoulos' answers on a Monday night Zoom call with reporters, edited for clarity and brevity: On how he compares this sluggish start to ones the Braves had in 2021 or 2022: I look a lot at run differential and things like that. I look at expected wins and losses. Our expected won-loss record (now) is 31-27. Our actual is our actual, and I don't want to run from that. But you do have to look under the hood at times. And we've played a ton of close games. We know that. We've seen them. And I believe we're better than we've played. We're not getting blown off the field by any stretch. There's just been a lot of close games and a lot a little things that have impacted us. We love Tui, but we think Fredi González at third base, because he's such a good, accomplished third-base coach. … The fact that he was available to us and we could make this move, we feel like it's the right thing to improve the ball club. So there are other areas as well that are starting to stabilize a little bit. Look, the offense has definitely been the focus, no doubt about that, but I do think there's significant upside. And again, when I look at things like run differential relative to the NL, other teams in the division and so on, it's the same thing we cited in '21. In 2021, the Braves were 52-55 on Aug. 1, finished as NL East champions at 88-73, then won the World Series. Granted, the division wasn't as strong (in 2021), but our run differential, I believe, was above the Mets when they were in first place back then. We're not there right now. I think we're 10th in the NL, but a few games here and there, that changes pretty fast. And the one-run games and so on, I think if we'd be sitting there and playing up to our expected stats, expected won-lost record at 31-27, we still would want significantly better, but we'd feel a little better about where things stand. Advertisement So … we have four months left, right? That's a lot of baseball. And the fact that we were in August and under .500 when you talk about '21 — I mean, we're just hitting June. We're two months ahead of that. So if we can be aggressive, whether it's making changes, making trades, we're gonna do that. And I'm not wired any other way than to constantly look to find a way to do what we think can make this team better. On AJ Smith-Shawver, who has a torn UCL and will meet with surgeon Keith Meister on Thursday in Texas, with Tommy John surgery likely. Anthopoulos was asked about criticism that Spencer Strider shouldn't have needed to inform pitching coach Rick Kranitz that Smith-Shawver was having arm issues, shaking out his arm after two pitches, before manager Brian Snitker replaced him when Smith-Shawver told Snitker he felt a pop in his elbow. Yeah, I saw all that. My take on this stuff is, I've been in baseball a long time, I'd say nine times out of 10, when I've seen any pitcher have an injury, the pitcher will signal to the guy behind the plate, or the guy behind the plate will notice something, right? He's the one who has his eyes on the pitcher. The guy behind the plate has his eyes on the pitcher every single pitch. I'm not criticizing whoever that was, but 99 times out of 100, the pitcher will signal out with his glove, he'll step off, and he will signal to the bench. That's the way I've always seen it. Rarely have I seen it where the bench will jump out of nowhere and go to the mound. I have seen the catcher say something's up and jump out and do that. That's probably the only time. But preemptively, you don't see it happen very often. I understand the world we live in and so on. AJ is a human being. He has feelings. He's not two years old. He's a 22-year-old grown man. He knows what feels right, what doesn't feel right. And he's had obliques, he's had other things before. He's called guys out to the mound before. So, I know this is part of the game when things aren't going well and you're not playing well. When I was in Toronto, David Price, who we acquired in a trade-deadline deal, put a sign up above his locker, and the sign said, 'If you don't like it, pitch better.' And my view of all this stuff is if you don't like it, play better. And that's part of it. And that's just being accountable. And that's pro sports today. So I just think taking some context in all this stuff. I saw it. … They've had plenty of times that they've noticed injuries, this and that, that the catchers noticed injuries as well. So I know it can be readily apparent and so on, but I don't think it's as simple as that. On the team's struggles with runners in scoring position and anything being done to address it: I don't want to necessarily speculate. If I say, hey, it's this thing now, the focus becomes on that. Look, we haven't gotten the job done. There's no doubt. I think coming off the high of '23, even if there's a regression, you don't think it's to the extreme that we have now. I think we have had some guys rebound. Obviously (Sean Murphy), he's significantly better than he was a year ago at this time. And he felt the oblique (injury last season) was a big part of that. Advertisement Ronald (Acuña Jr.) has swung the bat great when he's been in there. And we've seen some other guys like (Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies) be streaky. I think Matt (Olson) and Austin (Riley) have still performed. They have good numbers. They've put up MVP-caliber numbers. Matt was fourth in MVP two years ago. And Austin can be right there, he's gotten MVP votes in the past. Those two and Ronald are in their own stratosphere. But we're working through things. We clearly have not been able to solve it as a group. That's players, coaches, front office. For me to give you anything more and speculate, I just don't think it'd be responsible. I wish I could tell you, 'Look, here, this is it. You're going to see it start tomorrow night.' I think you ultimately believe in the group. And I know we can get hot. I know things can turn. This is my eighth season here, and '21 is a great example. It was doom and gloom for a long time. And I didn't project it to be August that we would finally catch fire (that season) and go for the next two months. But we've seen guys have great first halves, fall off in the second half. We've seen the guys do the opposite. Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler had miserable first halves with their clubs (in 2021). They were tremendous for us. Even Harris last year, at the end of the year. So, we're gonna have to ultimately look at the aggregate and the six months over time. Look, we don't want guys to be streaky. We want consistency, we want great performance. Of course, we want to win every game and we're working at it. But if I could pinpoint one thing, it would have been addressed, and we would have it solved. (Top photo of AJ Smith-Shawver: Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)
Winnipeg Free Press
03-06-2025
- Sport
- Winnipeg Free Press
Atlanta Braves bring back former manager Fredi González as acting third base coach
ATLANTA (AP) — The struggling Atlanta Braves are bringing back former manager Fredi González as acting third base coach. The team announced Monday that Matt Tuiasosopo, the previous third base coach, has accepted a role as minor league infield coordinator. Atlanta had the day off Monday. The Braves have lost eight of their last 11, and, at 27-31, are in fourth place in the NL East. Gonzalez has managed the Marlins and Braves previously. He was on Baltimore's coaching staff for five seasons, including three as bench coach, before being replaced by the Orioles last offseason. ___ AP MLB:
Fox Sports
03-06-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Atlanta Braves bring back former manager Fredi González as acting third base coach
Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — The struggling Atlanta Braves are bringing back former manager Fredi González as acting third base coach. The team announced Monday that Matt Tuiasosopo, the previous third base coach, has accepted a role as minor league infield coordinator. Atlanta had the day off Monday. The Braves have lost eight of their last 11, and, at 27-31, are in fourth place in the NL East. Gonzalez has managed the Marlins and Braves previously. He was on Baltimore's coaching staff for five seasons, including three as bench coach, before being replaced by the Orioles last offseason. ___ AP MLB: recommended
