Braves sign manager Snitker to extension through 2025 season - MLB

ATLANTA — Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker, coming off the team’s fifth consecutive NL East title, signed a contract extension on Friday that runs through the 2025 season.

Snitker, 67, guided the Braves to the 2021 World Series championship before the team won 101 games last season.

Snitker said Saturday he is excited about the future of the Braves, who have locked up many core players to long-term deals despite losing shortstop Dansby Swanson and first baseman Freddie Freeman as free agents in back-to-back offseasons.

Snitker applauded the work of general manager Alex Anthopoulos in signing newly acquired catcher Sean Murphy and others to long-term deals.

“We’ve done a good job,” Snitker said at the Braves Fest for fans at Truist Park. “I think now you’re going to see the core group of these guys here every year for this thing. I think that’s what Alex does, keeping those young, quality guys around.”

Murphy signed a $73 million, six-year contract after he was acquired from Oakland. He is going to share playing time with Travis d'Arnaud.

The Braves also reached long-term deals with sluggers Austin Riley and Matt Olson, as well as rookie stars Michael Harris II and Spencer Strider, in the past year.

The Braves have signed outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and second baseman Ozzie Albies to similar deals. The team has seven core players under contract for at least three more seasons, and club options could extend the deals even more.

The Braves plan on a 2022 rookie, Vaughn Grissom, competing with Orlando Arcia at shortstop in spring training.

Now Snitker is on board for at least three more seasons. He will be entering his 47th year with the organization and his seventh full season as Braves manager. He took over as interim manager on May 17, 2016, before landing the full-time position later that year.

He has a 542-451 record with Atlanta following more than 1,300 wins in the minor leagues.

After waiting so long for his opportunity to manage in the majors, Snitker has shown no sign he’s thinking of retiring. He said he’s making one change in his offseason routine – repeat visits to Hawaii for longer vacations after taking his wife, Ronnie, on their first one-week visit after last season.

“That’s the first time I’ve taken a non-baseball-related trip with my wife,” Snitker said.

“I said if I’m going to keep working, we’ve got to start doing this every year. … I’m going for longer next time.”

Snitker finished third in the manager of the year voting last season after winning the award in 2018. He also was a finalist for the honor in 2019 and finished fourth in 2020 and 2021.

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

NEW YORK (AP) Camillo Doval retired Giancarlo Stanton on a game-ending, double-play grounder with the bases loaded and the San Francisco Giants hung on for a 7-5 victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday.

Doval gave up Aaron Judge’s RBI single in the ninth, the slugger’s third hit, but earned his first save when Stanton hit a ground ball to shortstop Brandon Crawford, who started a double play that withstood a video review. Second baseman Thairo Estrada made a low throw to first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., who scooped the ball.

“Live and it looked before they paused, he kept it long enough,” Crawford said of Estrada. “LaMonte was definitely on the bag. I wasn’t too worried.”

There were four pitch clock violations, the most of any game in the first three days of the new rule. Two were by Doval in the ninth inning, and the Giants’ Taylor Rogers and the Yankees’ Albert Abreu had one each.

“We didn’t see any of that sort of thing in spring training,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “We saw a good mastery of it. This is a different environment and it’s understandable that things sped up a little bit, but no pitcher’s going to survive giving away balls like that. It doesn’t matter how good you are.”

New York’s Anthony Volpe got his first two big league hits and became the first Yankees player to steal a base in each of his first two games since Fritz Maisel in 1913. No major leaguer had accomplished the feat since Billy Hamilton in 2013.

But the 21-year-old shortstop also had Estrada’s RBI single carom off his glove as the Giants scored twice in the sixth inning for a 5-3 lead.

New York built a 2-0 lead helped by pitcher Alex Cobb’s throwing error and Stanton’s first home run, a 112 mph drive to the opposite field down the right-field line. But the Yankees went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runs as the Giants rallied.

Joc Pederson hit a solo homer and Crawford hit a two-run drive in a three-run fourth against Clarke Schmidt, the first home run for the Giants on a 3-0 pitch since Buster Posey in the 2021 NL Division Series.

Crawford went 3 for 5 with a double and scored twice to go along with a stolen base. It was the second time in his career he a three-hit game with a double, homer, two runs scored and a steal.

“It was a good day. I guess my best game of the year so far,” Crawford said with a laugh.

Anthony Rizzo’s RBI double off Jakub Junis (1-0) tied it 3-3 in the fifth, and the Giants scored two runs in the sixth without hitting a ball out of the infield.

Wade Jr. hit a go-ahead RBI single when his soft hit went to the third base side of the mound, and David Villar scored the go-ahead run when Michael King (0-1) and catcher Jose Trevino converged and could not make a throw. King was making his return from a broken elbow last July 22.

After King struck out Michael Conforto, Estrada hit a liner to Volpe, who charged in and had the ball go off the heel of his glove. Volpe was unable to get the force at second as Crawford scored to put the Giants up 5-3.

“It was a tough one,” Volpe said. “Probably keep me up at night thinking about that. I definitely feel like I should have had it. It was on me.”

Josh Donaldson homered in the eighth off Rogers, three innings after the crowd booed Donaldson for taking a called third strike that stranded two runners.

Mike Yastrzemski added an RBI double and Crawford hit a run-scoring single in a two-run ninth off Clay Holmes.

STARTERS Schmidt allowed three runs and four hits in 3 1/3 innings. Schmidt threw a cutter that he added in the offseason 27 times, including three straight to Pederson for a strikeout in the first.

Cobb gave up two runs and four hits in 3 2/3 innings.

TRAINER’S ROOM Giants: C Joey Bart (back tightness) was a late scratch. Kapler said Bart tweaked his back in batting practice.

Yankees: RHP Luis Severino (right lat strain) threw Friday and Saturday and felt good. … OF Harrison Bader (left oblique strain) took swings in the pool Friday and Saturday and could take swings in a cage next week. … RHP Lou Trivino (right elbow strain) threw off a mound Friday.

UP NEXT New York RHP Jhony Brito makes his major league debut Sunday against San Francisco RHP Ross Stripling. — AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports