The move caught most people off guard because just a week earlier, Brian Snitker had said he expects the coaching staff to remain the same for 2025. Who knows what happened between then and now, but something certainly wasn’t clicking for the Braves offensively this year, and it was more than just injuries.
Situational baseball has slowly been phased out of the game over the last decade. The days of ABC baseball, bunting, and moving guys over have been traded in for home runs and strikeouts. I’m not sure there’s any going back as a whole, but the best teams are still capable of doing the little things when the situation calls for it. The Braves lineup never seemed to understand that, and it drove fans crazy all season, including Hall-of-Famer Chipper Jones, who commented on the Braves offensive struggles earlier this year.
“I’m old school man, and it’s not going away. Working with the Braves for the last couple of years has been very frustrating,” Chipper Jones said recently on the “Casa de Klub” podcast, via Sportsnaut. “Can’t stand giving away outs. I can’t stand strikeouts. Can’t deal with a guy on third, less than two outs, and hitting a ground ball to shortstop or second base.
“I can’t stand every once in a while not laying down a bunt for your best hitters. A hundred RBIs? So what. This is truly a ‘chicks dig the long ball’ kind of era.”
When taken out of context, Jones’ comments could easily seem directed towards Kevin Setizer and the Braves staff. However, Chipper Jones took to Twitter to clear the air. He has all the respect in the world for Seitzer and assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes.
What i said on this podcast, in no way was meant to smear or undercut the job that Seitz or Maggy are/were doing. I know what they are preaching and it was the same stuff that i mention. Sometimes it gets thru, sometimes it gets ignored. There’s no bullying involved here. I love… https://t.co/5IBYr19jXf
— Chipper Jones (@RealCJ10) October 11, 2024
It sounds as if the instruction was readily available for the Braves bats. Unfortunately, they were unable to get it done on the field.
I’m not quite sure if I’m a fan of firing Kevin Seitzer. This is an experienced coach that has been with the club since 2015. He helped turn the Braves into an offensive juggernaut, and there are too many success stories he helped orchestrate to count. Just think about all of the guys that came to Atlanta and were struggling offensively, only to immediately turn things around and go on to have a career year. A lot of that is thanks to Kevin Seitzer.
However, I cannot argue that a shakeup was needed. The Braves have not won a playoff series in three years since winning the World Series, and most of the blame can be placed at the feet of the offense for their struggles in October.
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Photographer: David Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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