Braves predicted to replace Brian Snitker with former player, Team USA manager, World Series Champ originally appeared on The Sporting News

The Atlanta Braves are enduring a forgettable season, plagued by injuries, offensive struggles, and, at times, simply bad baseball. It marks the toughest stretch of Brian Snitker’s managerial tenure—and with this being the final year of his contract, speculation is growing that it could be his last season at the helm in Atlanta.

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“Because of that consistent recent success, Snit would normally be afforded a ‘mulligan’ year—even though going from the second-best preseason World Series odds to possibly the third-best odds of winning the draft lottery is a pretty serious mulligan,” Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller wrote. “At 69, though, he’s already the oldest manager in the National League by a several-year margin and was likely to retire at the end of this season, which is the last one in his current contract.”

With uncertainty around Snitker’s future, the Braves may already be considering potential replacements—and one name generating buzz is Mark DeRosa.

“Mark DeRosa grew up in the Braves farm system and spent his first seven seasons with the club. He’s yet to try his hand at managing in Major League Baseball since retiring as a player in 2013, but he has been the manager for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. Given he’s currently got a pretty good gig over at MLB Network, it won’t be easy to convince him to get off the couch. However, perhaps he might be more willing to do so for a familiar organization like the Braves,” ATL Sports Talk wrote.

While DeRosa has never managed at the MLB level, his familiarity with the Braves organization could work in his favor—a factor Atlanta has often leaned into. With the regular season winding down, it should soon become clear whether the Braves will offer Snitker a new deal. If not, DeRosa could emerge as a serious candidate for the job.

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