This afternoon, the Atlanta Braves surprised (or perhaps shocked) the fan base by naming former bench coach Walt Weiss the team’s new manager. Weiss, 61, will now try to get the Braves back into the playoffs in 2026 after the team missed the postseason last season for the first time since 2017.
There is a section of fans, especially those who are constantly online, who are quite unhappy with the decision to stay at home for their manager. The news was a shock after weeks of speculation that a younger, upstart manager from outside the organization could revitalize the ball club and move from some shades of “The Braves Way” to the light (or darker shades) of all-in analytics.
Atlanta chose to follow the same route they have taken since 1976 and hire a manager who has had past or current ties to the organization. Will Weiss’ hire be a good fit for the organization? That is a question that no one will be able to answer in the coming years.
In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, instead of fanning the flames of discontent, here are a few reasons why the common tropes cited as reasons for change could be why Weiss could be the right addition for the Braves.
After former manager Brian Snitker announced his retirement, there seemed to be two predominant opinions: maintain continuity for a team that will have only its fourth manager since 1991, or shake up its fundamental core with an outside hire.
Most of the names floating around for the Braves’ executive search all had at least some ties to the organization. Los Angeles Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and former big league skipper Bud Black were two speculative names with no previous employment with the organization, which would have made them the first since Dave Bristol to take over without a Brave history.
Other popular names who weren’t on the team’s coaching staff at Snikter – like David Ross and George Lombard – have all been part of the organization in the past, offering a bit of a compromise by being both an outsider and an insider.
This current Braves team still has a strong core with a farm system that, while not highly ranked, continues to produce high-level prospects with Major League value. This team is not in rebuilding mode. So bringing in a new manager was often a no-no – and one of the attractive factors for Ross as an outside option over a new option like Lombard or Ryan Flaherty.
With Weiss, who led the Colorado Rockies for four seasons a decade ago, Atlanta not only chose the man who coached the team for eight seasons, but also a man with nearly 650 games of major league experience.
Weiss is also a former big league shortstop: the 1988 American League Rookie of the Year with the Oakland A’s and an All-Star with Atlanta in 1998. During his fourteen seasons, he played for Tony La Russa, Renee Lachemann Don Baylor and Bobby Cox, who combined for 12,199 big league games, not to mention Weiss’ nearly 1,200 bench appearances with Atlanta. Weiss has a tremendous amount of experience and exposure to baseball at the highest level, a virtue in the eyes of the organization, it seems.
While experience and familiarity are not the be-all and end-all, having a manager who has a pre-existing relationship with the team’s players was likely an important consideration. If it was known that Atlanta needed a positive cultural reset, or if Atlanta was expected to change its fundamental core, having a manager whose presence on and off the field extends beyond the tenures of most players might not be the key, but that’s part of what Weiss brings to the table and that only fellow coach Eddie Perez could have given as well. Atlanta is often praised by players for its clubhouse culture, and this move seems designed to continue that as an asset.
How impactful the move from Snitker to Weiss could be from an analytical perspective cannot yet be assessed. There probably won’t be a radical change in the way decision-making is made with Weiss at the helm, although that will be one of the more curious items to keep an eye on next season. For many, that’s a huge red flag, and honestly a valid concern when it comes to how the bullpen is deployed, how the lineup is determined, and other ways to maximize the team’s players with data to prepare them for the best chance at success. The weight of these considerations is difficult to discern outside the metaphorical four walls of the organization’s power brokers.
There was some fear that a drastic change in leadership could also mean complete turnover of the major league coaching staff. That’s especially true of highly regarded pitching coach Rick Kranitz and bullpen coach Erick Abreu, who filled in admirably for Kranitz for much of the 2024 season. There is at least one open spot on the team’s bench and Weiss could choose to make additional changes to his staff, but his hiring likely bodes well if the organization wants to keep its field staff intact. Who will be the bench coach is a real curiosity, as that position could be one where Atlanta opts to bring in a coach with a heavier analytical bent to help guide in-game decision making.
Ultimately, the Braves opted to go the traditional route of experience with them, even as a number of organizations previously filled leadership vacancies with youth and inexperience with their new hires.
Yes, “The Braves Way” is an easy joke, but like many other organizations trying to reinvent the wheel in their quest for a modicum of success, Atlanta took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to extend its decades-long track record of success.
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