Braves sign Snitker through 2025 season

The Braves have locked up much of their young talent with long-term contracts in recent years. On Friday, the team saw to it that one of the old guard would be around a while longer too.

The Braves signed manager Brian Snitker to a twoyear contract extension through the 2025 season, the team announced.

Snitker, 67, guided the Braves to 101 wins and the team’s fifth consecutive NL East division crown last season, one year after helping the organization win the fourth World Series title in franchise history.

Snitker won the Manager of the Year in 2018 and was a finalist for the award in 2019. He finished third in voting last season and fourth in 2020 and 2021, putting him in the top four in voting each of the past five seasons.

Snitker has spent 46 seasons in the Braves organization, working for the team since 1977. After playing in their system for four years, he started coaching as a roving instructor in 1981. He then managed at every level in the minor leagues. Last season was his sixth full campaign as manager. He took over on an interim basis May 17, 2016, before being named Atlanta’s manager Oct. 11, 2016. The native of Decatur, Illinois, joined the organization as a nondrafted free agent in 1977.

“It’s all about the people,” Snitker said in July, of his time with the Braves. “I’ve said many times: I’ve been raised by Hall of Famers and really good people. There’s a laundry list of guys – a lot of them aren’t here anymore – that were very influential in my career. It’s always been about the quality players in the Atlanta Braves organization. The players, the people, the general managers, the directors, the scouts, the whole thing.

“It’s been very special. This is a different place.”

Snitker is 542-451 (.546) at the major league level, and he collected his 500th career victory July 26 last year in Philadelphia to become the fifth manager in franchise history to reach the milestone. Three of the four (Bobby Cox, 2,149; Frank Selee, 1,004; Bill Mckechnie, 560) are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The other, George Stallings (579), is not in the Hall of Fame but won the franchise’s first World Series title in 1914.

Snitker is the first manager in franchise history to take the team to the postseason five times in his first six full seasons.

HYOSUB SHIN/HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM Braves manager Brian Snitker greets fans during Braves Fest on Jan. 21. The Braves signed Snitker to a two-year contract extension.