The Atlanta Braves are glad to say goodbye to the San Diego Padres for the remainder of the 2025 regular season – especially after the Padres completed their 6-1 season series domination by claiming two out of three in Truist Park despite a returning Ronald Acuña Jr.

Plenty of blame can go around for the Braves’ hard-to-watch 25-27 start to the season. The offense has been Jekyll and Hyde basically all year, and the pitching staff hasn’t been as strong as it was last season. Additionally, the baserunning and defense have begun to slip a bit as well in recent days.

Following yesterday’s loss to San Diego, manager Brian Snitker shared his thoughts on what exactly isn’t clicking for the Braves at the moment. Snit begun with the usual “guys are working hard, but the team can’t seem to put it all together at once” mumbo jumbo to begin his media session.

However, the topic of Austin Riley’s dip in defense in recent weeks came up, and what appeared to be a postgame press conference featuring the same recycled answers quickly turned.

Instead, Snitker threw fans a curveball when he produced an excuse that is sure to make fans roll their eyes. The excuse was chalked up to typical baseball luck, as Snitker claimed Riley’s recent run in errors “weren’t all on him.”

Brian Snitker grasping at straws for explaining Braves’ run of mediocre play

Austin Riley was never thought to be the next Nolan Arenado defensively at third base. However, once considered a liability at the hot corner, Riley has turned his career around defensively, His 2025 season got off to a hot start, as he ranked amongst the best defenders at his position early on.

Sadly, as his bat has cooled off in recent weeks so has his glove. Riley has five errors in his last 15 games, and when the Braves aren’t clicking on all cylinders, gifting the opponent extra outs has been backbreaking. Yesterday, his error was followed by a Gavin Sheets game-tying two-run homer.

This level of inconsistency all around is why the Braves may be hard pressed to talk themselves into being buyers at this year’s trade deadline. The competition doesn’t lighten up anytime soon for Atlanta either, with a trip to Citizens Bank Park on the horizon.

We know Snitker isn’t going to proclaim the world to be on fire, but the amount of non-answers he’s given fans, and questionable bullpen decisions he’s made in recent weeks, have fans nearing the end of their patience with him. Hopefully, the Braves figure things out soon. If not, Snitker could be done managing much sooner than any of us expected.