Episode 22

October 04, 2025

00:07:25

#22 Alex talks next manager, off-season priorities, front office influence and water fasting.

Hosted by

CJ Nitkowski
#22 Alex talks next manager, off-season priorities, front office influence and water fasting.
The Drive In
#22 Alex talks next manager, off-season priorities, front office influence and water fasting.

Oct 04 2025 | 00:07:25

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Show Notes

10.4.25

Chapters

  • (00:00:02) - Alex Anthopoulos on the Search for the Next Manager
  • (00:02:56) - Atlanta Braves Manager Alex Anthopolous on Front Office Influence
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Episode Transcript

[00:00:02] Just got finished up with the Alex Anthopoulos end of the season zoom. And there was a lot of managerial talk I thought was kind of worth mentioning. The biggest points was were that there is no list right now. Sounds like a lot of that's probably going to start today. Any rumors that were out there? Not true. [00:00:20] They are working on putting things together, but really haven't done anything just yet. There was probably a little bit of a sense of urgency because of what is now seven jobs that appear to be open as far as manager. Managers go around the league. So that's a big part of it as well. But sounds like they're, they're getting ready to get things started. But here's what stuck out to me. I asked Alex a question about managers, what he looks for and the big one for me was kind of what he may have learned through the process last time. Right. It's been a while since he hired a manager. John Barrel and John Gibson were his two that he hired. And so I was just kind of curious and asked him what he learned. He said a lot and, and one of the things that he brought up that I found very interesting, he used a Warren Buffett quote, talked about integrity, intelligence and energy with integrity being the most important of the group. And he said basically if you only have number two and number three, you have a fast moving swindler. The integrity part of this seemed to be really important, which kind of listen makes a lot of sense by itself. It also makes a lot of sense when you think about the Braves history. And something I've always said about this organization from when I played here and afterwards and now working for them, is that the Atlanta Braves have always hired good people. They have avoided drama around their organization. People that lead the organization 99.9 of the time will have something nice to say about the organization regardless of how things ended. And so you think about the recent history here managerial, something he talked about with Brian Snicker and how he was off the charts when it came to that integrity factor and how important that is for him going forward. There are a lot of qualified baseball people that can lead this team. There's no doubt that that exists. But the other factors and things that you're looking for and using and leaning on his past experience, that integrity factor seems to be a really, really important one for him. I appreciate that and I think the guys ultimately will appreciate that as well. Obviously the baseball acumen has to come with it, but the fact that this is a really important part of it I find very Encouraging. When asked about how you go about the process of doing all the background work that's necessary, Alex said he's got to lean on a lot of people in the organization. There's just not enough bandwidth for the amount of people that you're going to be interested in for this job to be able to get the depth of background on your own. And so he's going to reach out. [00:02:40] It's going to be a team effort to be able to get it done and get as much information as they can on people when they start kind of putting this list together and figuring out who's going to be really going to offer the job to who's going to be the next guy to lead the Atlanta Braves. So I found that interesting, and like I said, I also found it encouraging. I also asked them about front office influence, because that's a big one these days. And what we see around the league for some of these teams is that the front office has influence on the daily things that happen in the clubhouse, whether it be the lineup, defensive positioning, reliever roles, platoon advantages, all that kind of stuff. [00:03:15] And he had a very interesting answer to that and even says, like, this is just the way that I've done things. I know the game has changed, and I'm paraphrasing here, but for Alexandropoulos, it's not to say that they don't want influence, but they want their managers to have complete control. They want the managers to have autonomy as far as what is happening with the team, the lineup, and all those things we talked about every day. [00:03:35] And one of his reasons was, is because if a player is unhappy with how he's playing, what his role is in the bullpen, etcetera, he doesn't want that player to walk into a manager's office and then the manager say, well, if you have a problem with it, go talk to the front office. And I admire that. Right. I mean, you still want things to be done at the clubhouse level. It's not to say that you can't have some influence. I think there's some overreach going on right now in the game. But for the Atlanta Braves being led by Alex Anthropoulos, you're not going to see that he wants his manager to make decisions, to be accountable. And I agree with that. One of the things we talk about often on our radio show on XM is when something goes bad for a team that, you know, has heavy influence, the only guy is dying on the sword is the manager. Like, the manager has to wear it takes the blame. And for some of these teams, it's not about the manager, certain decisions that are being made. So I like that it's a little bit of old school, but you got to be able to trust your leaders. And so the idea that next manager will have autonomy is an important one. Anybody that interviews for the job will be glad to hear. That's how the Atlanta Braves do things. So I thought that was kind of enlightening. Interesting, the speculation that might surround every single team out there and what kind of impact influence their front office has. It sounds like almost not now. Alex mentioned at times with Snit that, you know, he might be struggling on something, be in between on a lineup situation and then reach out to the front office and kind of get their input. That, of course makes a lot of sense. It's not to say that you're just doing it on your own and talking to your coaches and even talking to the front office. So it's not to. They'll get the wrong idea that the Braves are ignoring analytics. They just want to have a manager that makes the decisions, that's in charge of it. And it's harder and harder for teams to do that these days. So I like that. I don't know if I mentioned this or not already, but he did say basically a lot of the names and some of the rumblings and rumors that are out there. Basically none of those are true because they haven't put a list together yet. They haven't reached out to anybody. They have not made any offers to anybody and haven't had interviews with anybody yet. Probably there will be some teams that are currently playing that they're going to have to ask permission on to interview some coaches. They've been through the process on both sides of it where teams have reached out to their coaches in the past. They would like to move along somewhat quickly. And in Alex's perfect world, there'll be an announcement without a lot of speculation. Insiders work hard to try to get answers, but they really count on their people to keep things quiet and ultimately coming to a decision that they're hoping that the first time that we hear about it is the first time we hear about it when they announce it. So we'll find out soon enough. But it's an exciting time right now for sure. I did also tell Alex, I know some of you may have followed that story with him and kind of what happened and losing weight and the water fasting stuff, and I had a long conversation with him about it earlier this year. About, I don't know, maybe a month or so ago when he popped in the booth. Hadn't seen him in a while. He lost a bunch of weight so he inspired me a little bit. I just finished up this morning, 65 hours of a water fast. I had not eaten since Wednesday night. It made it all the way today. It was actually kind of easy and fun and I'm certainly not here to give anybody any medical or health advice, but I'm kind of in and plan on doing it multiple times this off season. So anyway, apropos nothing. That's how I started it. Just to butter them up a little bit. But it was a really good conversation. It was lengthy. We were over an hour today with all the writers with Alex Anthopoulos and talking this past season off season managerial. He did say that basically shortstop, starting pitching, bullpen are the top priorities. Right handed outfielder is on the list but further down the list, not as much of a priority going forward. But they also have to move forward with how they plan for players even before they get the manager. John Right. That never stops. That has to continue. So fun times ahead. Certainly a lot of good things going on. But I thought it was interesting what he said about the manager, the things that they will be looking for. There is a ton of really good candidates but integrity near the top of the list for the Atlanta brace. I will talk to you all soon. Have a great weekend.

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