Good morning. LEADOFF brings you today’s early buzz in Atlanta sports.
The Braves will be surrounded by newness next season. A new stadium with new features and new amenities. A new mixed-use development of shops, restaurants, bars, apartments, offices and a hotel. New traffic and parking patterns.
It’s safe to say that as the Braves spent the past few years planning their move to SunTrust Park, they didn’t envision a 40-year veteran of the organization managing the team in its first season in its shiny new home.
And that is what is so compelling about Brian Snitker getting the job: He earned it, made it very hard to give it to anyone else.
Maybe it’s not a splashy hire that will sell a lot of new season tickets – none of the other candidates would have done that either — but it is a hire that may make those who have bought or plan to buy feel better about their purchase.
It may be the Braves’ best-received move of their recent tumultuous years (well, except for the Dansby Swanson trade).
How could anyone not feel good about Snitker’s perseverance being rewarded after 40 years of good, loyal, hard work for a single employer, most of it in the minor leagues without any hint of ever becoming a big-league manager?
Snitker’s one-year contract (with a team option for 2018) does seem short for a newly named manager. (Fredi Gonzalez got a three-year contract with a team option for a fourth season when he was hired in October 2010.) And it means the Braves’ front office will have to make another managerial decision by this time next year – whether to pick up Snitker’s option or hire a new manager for 2018.
The answer to that will play out on the field of the new ballpark.
Much more on the Snitker hire:
With Snitker and Ron Washington, Braves were flexible along the way, David O'Brien writes.
Jeff Schultz writes: The interim manager is now the permanent manager. Or at least as permanent as a one-year guaranteed contract suggests.
Schultz and Noah Coslov discuss the hire.
O'Brien on the new pitching and third-base coaches.
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Noteworthy: The Hawks' Paul Millsap tells Chris Vivlamore he is undecided about whether to opt out of the final year of his contract (and a $21,472,407 salary) after the upcoming season. … Jonathan Ledbetter, Georgia's talented sophomore defensive lineman, is set to make his season debut Saturday after serving a six-game suspension for two alcohol-related arrests, Seth Emerson reports. … And if you missed it yesterday, check out what five experts are saying about the Falcons.
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Return to LEADOFF early tomorrow for more news, notes and links.
