In Braves’ manager search, Anthopoulos’ trust in background work bodes well
The Braves’ search for Brian Snitker’s successor has at least two advantages in its favor.
One is that the roster is much more ready to win than many of the other teams that are also looking for managers.
Another is that president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos brings an intelligent approach to the process, one shaped by his two manager hires while he was the GM with the Toronto Blue Jays (2009-15).
“I learned a ton,” Anthopoulos said of those experiences during his media availability on Saturday. “A ton. And I would say interviews are important — very important — but I would say the background work is much, much, much, much — as many of those as you can — more important.”
Anthopoulos’ recognition of the limitations of face-to-face meetings with candidates is advantageous.
What are job interviews but a chance for a candidate to put himself (or herself) in the best light possible?
There’s value in them — there can be information and understanding acquired in those meetings that can’t always be obtained in other ways — but they’re not necessarily the most honest conversations, either. Who has ever given a straightforward answer to “What’s your greatest weakness?”
Further, given that integrity is a must for Anthopoulos, how do you assess that in an interview?
“So, do you have integrity?”
This isn’t to say that Anthopoulos has a secret that no other sports organization is aware of. Every business that takes itself seriously vets candidates through various means, particularly when it comes to openings as important as the one that the Braves will be working to fill in coming weeks.
But anyone with familiarity with these situations has heard owners, general managers or athletic directors gush over how they were won over in the interview by the candidate’s energy or vision.
Those assets are great, but it doesn’t speak to the person’s ability to effectively relate to and lead 26 people in a stressful, highly competitive and public workplace. That may not necessarily come across in an interview.
“I don’t know that that is the best environment to evaluate someone,” Anthopoulos said.
The ability to communicate traits like energy or intelligence matter to some degree, but not as much as the evaluations of the people who are around the candidate every day, people far more likely to provide an honest, unvarnished picture.
It’s why some candidates won’t even make it to the interview stage with Anthopoulos, having been eliminated through the background work that he, his staff and others in the organization will conduct.
“It could be player, coach, executive, clubhouse (staff),” Anthopoulos said. “If someone has crossed paths with someone, why wouldn’t we ask that person to get information?”
It is not lip service. There have been instances where Anthopoulos has been in pursuit of a player through a trade where he has stopped the process because of feedback that Braves players or others have given him that the trade target wouldn’t be a fit for the team.
What a candidate looks like on paper — or what he says in an interview — are only pieces.
It reflects an open mind on Anthopoulos’ part. It makes some sense to prefer candidates who have been with the Braves (i.e., Braves bench coach Walt Weiss or former Cubs manager David Ross, who played for the Braves 2009-12) or who have past experience managing.
That is to say, candidates who look good on paper.
But, said Anthopoulos, “I just don’t think you can limit yourself.”
Consider some of the managers remaining in the playoffs and their variety of backgrounds. Seattle’s Dan Wilson was in the team’s front office when he became the team’s manager in August 2024.
The Yankees’ Aaron Boone had a long playing career but was hired out of ESPN’s broadcast booth with no experience in coaching or the front office. Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson never got higher than Class-A in the minors as a player and then had jobs in the front office and coaching and managing in the minor leagues before taking coaching jobs in the majors with the Yankees and Phillies. He became the Phillies interim manager in 2022 before earning the full-time job.
Detroit’s A.J. Hinch was on a track to become a general manager before becoming Arizona’s manager in 2009 with no experience managing or coaching. The Tigers are the third team he has managed.
Or, Snitker himself. Had the Braves waited until the end of the 2016 season to fire Fredi Gonzalez, as opposed to firing him in May of that year and promoting Snitker to the interim job, would the manager who led the Braves to six consecutive National League East titles and the 2021 World Series title have gotten a shot?
“You look at who’s won a World Series, all these different managers,” Anthopoulos said. “There’s no set formula, right?”
All this said, Anthopoulos may end up with Weiss, Ross or John Gibbons, who was one of the managers he hired in Toronto. In the last of their three years together (2013-15), Gibbons led the Blue Jays to the ALCS, winning the AL East title after more than 20 years without a playoff berth. The fact that he hired Gibbons to be a special-assignment scout with the Braves in 2020 is an indication of Anthopoulos’ esteem and trust. Gibbons is available after resigning his position as the Mets bench coach after this season.
But it could be someone who’s not on anyone’s list of likely candidates.
Wherever the background work leads.
About the Author
Ken Sugiura is a sports columnist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Formerly the Georgia Tech beat reporter, Sugiura started at the AJC in 1998 and has covered a variety of beats, mostly within sports.
