{"id":261598,"date":"2025-11-04T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261598\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T18:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:21:08","slug":"braves-anthopoulos-says-club-ran-extensive-external-search-before-promoting-weiss-as-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261598\/","title":{"rendered":"Braves’ Anthopoulos says club ran extensive external search before promoting Weiss as manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 There were times during the Atlanta Braves’ 33-day search for a new manager that Walt Weiss thought \u201cthat ship had sailed\u201d regarding his chances to move up from bench coach and replace Brian Snitker<\/a>, who is transitioning to an advisor role with the franchise.<\/p>\n

On Monday, he got the call he was hoping for from Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know Alex, how thorough he is and how stealthy he is,\u201d said Weiss, who spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time as Braves manager after eight years as bench coach. \u201cHe likes to work under the cover of darkness, and so you know this process would be like that at times. But yeah, I couldn\u2019t be more excited yesterday when I got that call.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to his eight years as Snitker’s bench coach, during which the Braves reached the postseason seven times, Weiss played the final three years of his 14-year MLB career in Atlanta from 1998-2000. He was an All-Star for the only time in his career in 1998 under Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox.<\/p>\n

There was speculation the Braves would go outside the Cox tree for this opening after hiring Fredi Gonz\u00e1lez (2011) and Snitker (2016). Anthopoulos did not specify how many formal interviews he conducted, though he said he spoke to \u201ca lot\u201d of candidates and other people about the opening. Ultimately, he stayed in house.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important for us to get it right,\u201d Anthopoulos said. \u201cIt was a rare opportunity for us to really canvas the entire league, talk to as many people and do as much background work as we could. And ultimately, that search came back to Walt, and I couldn\u2019t be more excited his experience, his character, his work ethic. (It) is exactly what we want here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiss won a World Series with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa in Oakland and either played or worked under Don Baylor, Rene Lachemann, Clint Hurdle and Snitker. He said he has learned from all of them and will incorporate that into how he works his second stint as an MLB manager, which lasted from 2013-16 in Colorado. He had a 283-365 record (.437).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve evolved from my first job in Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned a lot. The game has changed. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve changed and hopefully (I’m) wiser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Weiss said any team outside of the Dodgers would sign up for what the Braves have accomplished the last eight years under Snitker and he understands the brand of the franchise and what it means to the fanbase. He also said his familiarity with the players and the organization will allow him to hit the ground running during his first season when the Braves try to rebound from a 76-86 season that had a mix of costly injuries and some underperformance of established players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a better part of a year to truly understand your team,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cI\u2019m talking about getting to know them on a deep level. What makes them tick? What situations (do) they thrive in, even down to their body language? So that\u2019s a process that takes the better part of a year. And I think the fact that I\u2019ve been here, a lot of those things are already established.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Braves did not have any announcements regarding Weiss’s staff, but that is a \u201cfront-burner\u201d issue for Anthopoulos, who said he has already discussed it with Weiss. He also made it clear what the expectations are moving forward.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201c(Making the playoffs), that\u2019s just a standard that we\u2019ve set here,\u201d Anthopoulos said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a credit to Snit, to Bobby Cox, to (former general manager) John Schuerholz that have set the standard here. You know, you guys like Nick Saban, the standard is the standard, and it is. We expect to be in the playoffs year in and year out. So, you know, this is a real responsibility, and we owed it to make sure that we left no stone unturned and were as thorough as we could be, even if it was someone that was already internal.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill Trocchi, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 There were times during the Atlanta Braves’ 33-day search for a new manager that Walt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[30887,3960,121221,121222,8830,49,48,5731,511,462,82,121220],"class_list":["post-261598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alex-anthopoulos","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-bench-coach","tag-bobby-cox","tag-brian-snitker","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colorado","tag-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-walt-weiss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}