Braves’ Anthopoulos, Snitker have formed a great partnership

When Stan Kasten courted then-Kansas City Royals general manager John Schuerholz to run the Atlanta Braves, he had one condition: Bobby Cox would be his field manager.

Schuerholz not only accepted the stipulation but endorsed it. And so began one of the most successful partnerships in sports history.

Fast forward 28 years. When the Braves hired Alex Anthopoulos to replace the disgraced team of John Hart and John Coppolella, he inherited a manager that he knew only by name, a name not that well known outside Braves Country.

On the surface, Brian Snitker’s record to that point — 131 wins, 155 losses -- would have made it easy for Anthopolous to justify making a change. Or at least push his new bosses for a change.

But the more that Anthopoulos talked to everyone in the organization -- from the top level of management all the way down to clubhouse staff -- the more confidence he gained in Snitker. At least enough to push that major decision off until after the 2018 season.

Anthopoulos immediately saw first-hand the stabilizing effect that Snitker instilled in the clubhouse when he was promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett early in the 2016 season. Then a funny thing happened. The 2018 Braves stunned the baseball world -- including, truth be told, Anthopoulos himself -- by winning the National League East.

That magical season began with Nick Markakis’s walk-off three-run homer to beat Philadelphia. Yeah, the players won the game. Don’t they always? Two runs in the sixth, three runs in the eighth, then the big bomb in the ninth.

But the relentlessly competitive culture that has come to define these Braves starts in the manager’s office, just as it did a generation before under Cox.

The relationship between the general manager and the field manager can be a tricky one. Both can be highly skilled at their respective jobs, but not necessarily work well together. The general manager has to give the field manager players with whom he can work. The field manager must return that trust by using the players properly.

Sounds simple in theory, right? But it’s ever so complicated when egos are involved.

For two men joined together by circumstances, Snitker and Anthopoulos have formed a partnership that is off to a beautiful start. Two seasons, two NL East titles, and the makings of many more championships to follow.

So it seemed only fitting that when the Braves rewarded Anthopoulos with an extension through the 2024 season, he in turn rewarded Snitker with an extension through 2021. This is what Anthopoulos said following the 2018 season when he decided to retain Snitker rather than pursue a “name” manager.

“The first thing is you need to be able to have the respect of the players and connect with the players. No matter how talented you are, how smart you are, or how good tactically you are, if you don’t have that side of it you’re not going to go very far. Snit has that in spades and is very strong in that area.

That relationship between front office and field manager is even more complicated with the advent of analytics. Anthopoulos recognized Snitker’s willingness to adjust from the old school methods of trusting your gut to believing the data.

“If anything, he was very supportive of that,” Anthopoulos said in that interview. “It could have been the opposite. I’ve seen managers that maybe want to impede certain things, micromanage certain areas. There’s enough on the manager’s plate that they have to do day in and day out.”

So the news that both the GM and the manager would remain in place for the foreseeable future was well received in the Braves’ clubhouse. Freddie Freeman called Snitker “an amazing guy.”

“He’s a leader,” Freeman said. “Everyone in this room respects him. He’s a Braves lifer. He understands this culture of the Atlanta Braves. He is the Atlanta Braves. He’s given so much to this game and to this organization, and for him to keep being (at) the helm of this team, it’s a good feeling because I think there is no one else suited for this job other than Brian Snitker.”

“Hopefully,” Freeman added, “we can reward him in the next couple of years with a World Series championship.”

To his credit, Anthopoulos has learned a couple of valuable lessons.

While talent is a prerequisite, character and chemistry also matter. And while analytical data is deemed essential, that has not lessened the value of the field manager.

If anything, it has made the job tougher than ever. And no one is better suited to lead the Braves than Snitker.