LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In his 41st spring training but first as a major league manager, the Braves’ Brian Snitker didn’t mind admitting he was excited. Very. That’s Snitker, the lack of pretense just one of the reasons that everyone in the organization, and most certainly the players, love the guy.
“I love this time of year,” Snitker said while seated in a dugout at 9 a.m. Monday, reporting day for Braves pitchers and catchers at ESPN Wide World of Sports. “I love the drive down here and I love when you get here and you see all the guys again. It’s just good to see everybody.”
The drive from Atlanta, he said, felt a lot like the drive he took on the same route in October, when he got the call en route to Braves organizational meetings, notifying him that he was getting the “interim” label dropped from his title and was now the manager, period, on a one-year contract with a team option for 2018.
“The whole drive (this time) as kind of like that,” Snitker said. “It’s exciting. Putting it together, and building off the way we finished (20-10 in the last games of 2016). I was excited about getting down here. It’s good to go in there and see the guys. Everybody looks great, everybody’s encouraged, excited, feeling good about things, and just anxious to get going.”
Snitker is nothing but upbeat about the Braves’ outlook this year, insisting their goal is to win the NL East.
“For it me it’s legit,” he said of increased optimism around the team. “I think our club, what we accomplished last year and how we ended and going into this year, I think it’s a legit feeling, the positivity and just wanting to get after it. I’m ready to get the games going and we haven’t even worked out yet. I’m ready to play games.”
He spoke glowingly of their young pitchers and the offseason addition of three veteran starters, former Cy Young Award winners Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey and left-hander Jaime Garcia.
“Guys can watch how they go about things day-in and day-out and really learn from that,” Snitker said. “They don’t have to do anything more than be themselves and they’re going to be a great influence on our young guys.”
The only negative of late was a harrowing car accident Jan. 28 that left versatile veteran Sean Rodriguez with a shoulder injury that will require surgery and force him to miss most and possibly all of the season. Rodriguez’s wife sustained a badly broken leg and wrist injury in the crash and two of their four children had injuries that required hospitalization.
“I called him and talked to him on the way down here,” Snitker said. “I had some time to catch up. And really didn’t even ask him about him, I was more concerned with, how are your kids, how’s your wife, the family pretty much. In the short time I’ve known Sean and played against him, you know the guy’s a baseball player. He’s a real gamer and really enjoys everything about this whole gig, and it’s tough for a guy like that to have that setback.
“I think everybody’s out of the hospital and mending. He was explaining all that to me. I saw the video and all that; it was horrific. But he sounded good, he said, ‘I’ll see you next week.’ I’m glad the children are OK and his wife, also. That’s tough. That’s scary.”
Soon after learning that Rodriguez’s injury was more severe than initially believed and that he’d be out indefinitely, Braves general manager John Coppolella finalized a trade for veteran Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips, a three-time former All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger Award winner.
“He’s still a really good player,” Snitker said of Phillips, 35. “I told Coppy when he was talking about that (making that move), I said he’s still one of those guys that I hated to see come up. I mean, he’s dangerous, and he’s the guy that, for me, I always just marveled at how easy he plays the game. Good player. Just further (deepens) our lineup. I don’t think it’ll be anything but a good thing to have him in the middle of our lineup.”
