Coach’s approach cutting edge
With exercise science background, Snitker can show specific movements that affect a swing
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Somewhere in the caverns of Tom Cantrell’s office sits Troy Snitker’s file. Cantrell coached Snitker for three seasons and employed him for another at North Georgia University. Snitker had swagger and sometimes seemed too sure of himself, toeing the delicate balance between conviction and cockiness. He caught, played first base and could be serviceable at third. The Atlanta Braves selected him in the 19th round of the 2011 draft, keeping Snitker secure in the only organization he had known.
At 6 years old, Snitker started living the pseudo life of a professional ballplayer. His father, Brian, bounced around as a minor league manager in the Braves organization. Troy traveled with him, growing up around players he later strove to succeed. Clubhouses taught something classrooms couldn’t. Troy immersed himself in the sport but realized he probably wouldn’t play it at the highest level. He took 222 plate appearances in affiliated baseball.
“I didn’t wait around in preparing for an alternate career path,” Troy quipped.
Baseball can reward bloodlines. Sons might merit their place in the game, but perception always sways back to any influence from a famous father. Troy sought a baseball life like his dad but with a path all his own. In 2015, while he was a graduate assistant at North Georgia, Troy typed a cover letter detailing his hitting philosophy. He sent it to Cantrell for final proofreading. The veteran coach still has a copy in Troy’s file.
Troy attached his résumé and sent it to roughly 20 major league organizations. Not among them? The Atlanta Braves, the team his father now manages.
“There’s definitely a part of me that wanted to just go and not worry about knowing as many people and going into an organization that everybody didn’t know my dad,” Troy said this week. “I wanted to be able to be judged for what I was doing and my progress and whatever product I was putting out there as a coach.
“I didn’t want to be judged based off anything other than my work ethic, what I was doing, what I was teaching. Nothing else. I did want to move on and kind of branch out on my own.”
At only 32, Troy ascended to a spot on the Astros’ major league coaching staff. He’s one of two hitting coaches assisting one of the sport’s best lineups. He considers himself akin to a golf caddy, a sounding board for ballplayers in an era overflowing with data. He becomes more bilingual each season, even if he finished a few classes short of the Spanish minor he sought in college. His drive draws the praise of the players he coaches. His learning does not stop.
“It’s somewhat of a rare mix to have somebody who is confident in themselves to be able to work with major league players but also willing to implement any new information that becomes available and see where it fits,” Astros assistant general manager Pete Putila said. “He’s just a very sociable, personable kind of guy. He can relate to anybody, and as a coach in general, that’s super important.”
The Astros paired Snitker with Alex Cintron, a former switch-hitting shortstop with almost nine years of major league service time. Cintron’s on-field experience blends seamlessly with Snitker’s exercise science background. The two men often arrive at the same conclusion after taking very different approaches. Cintron helped Snitker master making in-game adjustments for hitters — “incredible street smarts,” Snitker called it.
Snitker’s tack is a tad more cutting edge. He received a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from North Georgia, where Cantrell welcomed him back as a graduate assistant in 2015 while Snitker earned his master’s in the same field.
Some nights, Snitker’s job included washing his team’s uniforms until 1 a.m. Cantrell allowed him to coach hitting and participate in strength and conditioning instruction. Snitker pored over film and tried lessons learned from his sports science studies on the field. He eventually earned certification as a strength and conditioning specialist by the Titleist Performance Institute.
“At first, I was kind of taken aback with it. Then I let him run with it,” Cantrell said. “Sometimes me and him would just have discussions that ‘This guy on our team (is) a really good college player, (but) he can’t hit the way you want him to hit. He’s not physically capable of doing that.’
“To Troy’s credit, he believed he could make that guy hit like that. You had to love the enthusiasm.”
Snitker’s exercise science background appealed to former Astros minor league hitting coordinator Jeff Albert, who first contacted him after receiving the cover letter. Putila, the team’s former farm director who oversaw player development, called such a background one of a “handful” of attributes the Astros value when hiring coaches. Collaboration between the organization’s coaches and strength and conditioning staff is valuable. Having some surface-level knowledge only aids that.
“Hitting in general is just basic human movement with a bat in your hands. I think guys lose that sometimes,” Snitker said. “I think guys get coached out of that sometimes. Every day when you’re watching swings and watching different hitters, I’m not just assessing swings. We’re looking at how guys are moving, and we’re trying to diagnose it from that perspective.
“I think guys can get coached out of good movements just as quick as they can get coached into them. When you’re evaluating hitters or coaching hitters with that in mind, I think it helps you skip some steps. It helps you figure some things out a little faster and helps you get guys more efficient.”
Snitker is known to step into the batting cage and physically adjust some of his hitter’s bodies and movements. Explaining it Snitker’s way can simplify sometimes convoluted instruction. Outfielder Kyle Tucker lauds the detail with which Snitker can assess and fix movements that go awry.
“He’ll come up to me and just move my body how the swing should be,” outfielder Myles Straw said. “For me, it’s easier for me to pick up something like that as opposed to hearing what he has to say. I can listen to some coaches say, ‘Do this,’ but when he physically comes and grabs my shoulders or whatnot, I feel like it helps me understand that’s what the body needs to do to make my swing work.
“It could be one little thing. It could be where a foot lands, a shoulder. I think that’s where he comes in handy. He pays attention to detail and doesn’t really miss a whole lot.”
Straw and Snitker ascended together with the Astros. Houston hired Troy in 2016 as a rehab hitting coordinator and Gulf Coast League coach. Brian became Atlanta’s interim manager that May after the Braves fired Fredi Gonzalez. Father and son shared an ascent over the next four years. Brian was kept around on a fulltime basis for the 2017 season and won his first National League East title in 2018.
Troy moved up two levels from Class A Advanced Buies Creek to Class AA Corpus Christi, drawing attention from rehabbing major leaguers and minor leaguers fighting for a call-up.
“He’s a guy that players trust, and he’s not afraid to use any of the information we have available,” Putila said. “One of the biggest things a lot of times in the age where you have all this information is not letting your ego get in the way.
“I think it’s somewhat of a rare mix to have somebody who is confident in themselves to be able to work with major league players but also willing to implement any new information that becomes available and see where it fits.”
Last October, father and son finished their seasons on the precipice of a pennant. The Braves and Astros both lost in Game 7 of a tense championship series. Troy’s lineup came alive after four months of frustration. Brian’s club charged out to a 3-1 series lead against the eventual World Series champion Dodgers but could not close it out.
The two men talk about once a week in spring training, when schedules are out of whack and their two teams train in different time zones. A more streamlined regular-season routine allows them to communicate more then.
Troy has paved his own path but is indebted to the bygone era Brian raised him in. The blend of analytical advancement with gut feelings is a fleeting attribute in baseball. Troy has it. His father’s long journey through the Braves system — Brian was a coach for 31 years before getting the full-time managerial gig — afforded Troy an intimate look at how grinding the sport can be.
“He’s very much a perfectionist of what he wants to do,” Cantrell said. “He’s not going to fail — let me just put it that way. Failure is not an option for him. I’ve never seen a young man so driven to knowing what he wanted to do. And he was going to make that happen.”
Troy tells Cantrell he has one goal left to achieve: managing a major league team. Brian got it after dedicating his life to the game. Troy is en route, too, while paving his own way.
“I’m a firm believer that he’s gotten exactly what he’s earned,” Cantrell said. “It wasn’t given to him. He’s pretty much earned it. He’s grown up tremendously.”