In their evaluation of their path forward, the Braves made multiple changes to Brian Snitker’s coaching staff.
The Braves on Thursday informed hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes and catching coach Sal Fasano that they would not be part of the coaching staff in 2025. All are still under contract next year, which gives them an opportunity to find another job elsewhere in the meantime.
The Braves plan to hire two hitting coaches. They won’t fill Fasano’s role, which was designed specifically for him.
Seitzer had been the Braves’ hitting coach since 2015 – a full 10 seasons. Context on that: Seitzer was the longest-tenured hitting coach in MLB, and was the Braves’ hitting coach even before Snitker took over as the interim manager. Magallanes, who worked with Seitzer, just completed his third season on the big-league coaching staff. Fasano had been on staff since 2018.
All three men are highly regarded within the industry. They should have the experience and credentials to land elsewhere in the majors, if they so choose. The Braves informing them now allows them to be in line for other jobs when other clubs begin their hiring processes.
On the Braves’ end-of-season Zoom call, Snitker and president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos both said they expected Snitker’s entire staff to return. It’s reasonable to assume that by the time of this Zoom call – less than 48 hours after the Braves had been eliminated – Anthopoulos hadn’t yet fully evaluated everything in the organization. And knowing how he operates, he wouldn’t ever answer a question about personnel in a way that might make people think changes were coming.
That the Braves moved on from their two hitting coaches isn’t surprising. That Fasano was included comes as a shock.
Hitting coaches often are involved in a lot of turnover. So many factors out of their control go into those jobs. And sometimes, a team simply needs a new voice. But Seitzer worked with the Braves’ hitters during the rebuild and in this run of seven consecutive postseason appearances.
It’s difficult to quantify a catching coach’s impact, but Braves players and coaches loved Fasano. In addition to working with catchers Sean Murphy and Travis d’Arnaud, Fasano was part of the Braves’ game-planning meetings.
From the outside looking into the situation, the Braves probably had to change something – and the hitting coaches seemed most likely. They had an elite pitching staff, but their offense, decimated by injuries, held them back. They were swept in two games by the Padres in the wild-card round, which marked the team’s third consecutive first-round exit. (Though in evaluating this team, 2024 probably shouldn’t be viewed like 2023 and 2022.)
In 2024, the Braves’ offense underperformed. In the regular season, Atlanta ranked 15th in team batting average (.243), 12th in OPS (.724) and 15th in runs scored (704). The Braves’ 24% strikeout rate was ninth in the baseball, while their 8% walk rate was 15th. With runners in scoring position, the Braves hit .247 (20th in MLB) with a .727 OPS (20th).
And all of this – a sharp downturn from the Braves’ potent offenses of the last half-decade – came after their lineup set records in 2023.
This season, the Braves were without Ronald Acuña Jr. from late May through the end of the season. They lost Austin Riley for good in the middle of August. They played without Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II for about two months each, and without Murphy for around two months. Seitzer and Magallanes weren’t working with the same group because of all those injuries. But the Braves’ offensive issues began before most of the injuries.
It always seemed like Anthopoulos faced difficult questions this offseason. At the top: Do the Braves require change or was 2024 simply an outlier due to injuries?
The Braves’ staff changes tell us they feel something needed to be altered for 2025.
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