Adversity has been the one constant for the Atlanta Braves this season.
Countless superstars have been injured. Atlanta has had to push for the playoffs without Ronald Acuña Jr., Spencer Strider, or Austin Riley. And to top it off, the Braves will play a doubleheader that may decide their season on Monday--the day before the playoffs begin.
That's a lot of stress to take in a single season, and one has to wonder how it might affect the man writing the lineup card.
Braves manager Brian Snitker, who has been in the organization since 1977 as a minor-league catcher, has become an Atlanta icon. But as the 2021 World Series champion gets older, one insider wonders if this season might surprisingly be the skipper's last.
On Thursday, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic listed Snitker as one of the managers "under scrutiny" around MLB as the regular season approaches its climax.
"The Braves are not about to force out Snitker after he kept the team in contention during a season marred by one injury after another," Rosenthal said. "The better question might be whether Snitker — at age 68, after nine seasons as manager and nearly 50 years in the Atlanta organization — still wants to manage."
"An easy solution, if Snitker wants to move on, would be for the Braves to make him a high-paid advisor and keep him part of the organization. If anyone deserves a golden parachute, after six straight division titles and a World Series triumph in 2021, it’s 'Snit.'"
Snitker has done everything there is to achieve in the game of baseball, and has done so after grinding through three decades of the minor-league lifestyle. He's talked at times about the toll a season can take on a manager, and if he were to step away, no one could blame him.
At the same time, would a steely competitor like Snitker walk away after a season in which his team missed the playoffs? Wouldn't he want one more chance to run it back with Acuña, Strider, Riley, and the rest of the gang?
The final five games of Atlanta's season will already decide a lot. But for the manager, they could have even more significance if retirement is on the table.
