*As long as you used to play, coach, or work for the Braves, apparently.
Monday was completely quiet as far as Atlanta Braves news was concerned — at least until the evening rolled around, which is when the lid came off after it became known that the Braves were making a mid-season change to their coaching staff. Out goes third base coach Matt Tuiasosopo, in comes new third base coach and former manager Fredi Gonzalez.
In this current media landscape where it’s hard to filter out legitimate news from blatant misinformation, it would’ve been totally understandable to take one look at that news when it broke and then take another look to make sure that it came from the actual official Braves twitter account instead of “@barves” or something like that. Nope — the Braves really did it. Former Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has been hired as the third base coach to work under former third base coach and current Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker.
On paper, this is a perfectly fine move. It makes sense that Matt Tuiasosopo has been “reassigned” as a result of his performance as the third base coach. The Braves have had some misadventures on the basepaths on that side of the diamond and it’s apparent that Braves General Manager/President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos figured that the time for a change was right here and right now. Justin Toscano of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed that with his reporting on the matter:
Alex Anthopoulos, in his 14th year as a GM, had never made an in-season coaching staff change. He doesn’t believe in pinning struggles on coaches. He felt this situation was clear — so much so that he privately begun to ponder who might be available to coach third base for ATL.
— Justin Toscano (@JustinCToscano) June 3, 2025
It’s clear that Anthopoulos figured that a change was needed to light a fire under this team. They’ve certainly done enough shuffling on the fringes of this roster throughout this early portion of the season so that’s why it started to make sense that some eyeballs would start to turn to the coaching staff. Tuiasosopo has had some questionable moments occur under his watch so it’s understandable that he ended up being in a vulnerable position here. Something had to change and that’s the change that the Braves have chosen to make for now.
With all of that being said, this is wild, y’all. Fredi Gonzalez! Even with Atlanta’s reputation for spinning the block on former players, coaches and various other alumni, I don’t think that anybody could’ve anticipated this type of reunion happening. As a reminder, Fredi Gonzalez was fired all the way back in 2016 and he figured out he was fired when he received an email from Delta before he was personally informed of his termination. As another reminder, Fredi Gonzalez was replaced in the interim by Brian Snitker — who is still the manager. You’d think that this would be cause for some sort of strife but apparently that won’t be the case. Friend of the website Grant McAuley reported that the two coaches are still longtime friends.
Just over nine years after Brian Snitker replaced Fredi Gonzalez as #Braves manager, Gonzalez returns to the organization to join Snit’s coaching staff. The two are longtime friends and Gonzalez has a wealth of experience as a third base coach.
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) June 2, 2025
Now, as Grant mentioned in the tweet, Fredi’s experience as a third base coach is the reason why this move should work out on paper. Fredi’s worked for the Marlins and the Orioles since being fired as Braves manager and he also has a ton of experience being the head honcho of the dugout as well. Experience matters a ton in coaching, which is why this will probably end up working out A-OK for the Braves. At the very least, we probably won’t have to worry about seeing too many more bizarre moments from the Braves on the basepaths on that side of the diamond.
Still, it’s hard to get over the fact that the guy who lost his job here has returned to work under the guy who ended up replacing him. Fortunately, it appears that the two men still get along both personally and professionally so this move should work out on that level as well. It’s still just an incredible turn of events to consider, y’all. It’s going to take a while to wrap my head around it — okay, maybe it won’t be something to ponder past tomorrow morning but it’s still wild to think about it all!
Photo by John Adams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It also makes me wonder about the post-”Brian Snitker, Braves manager” world and who will eventually replace him. It feels easy to assume at this point that we already have a general idea of who will be the next manager of the Braves once that becomes a decision that needs to be made. That person will have already worn a Braves uniform at some point or another and there’s a decent chance that it’s someone who already works for the Braves right now. We know that this is an organization that is not afraid to spin the block on a former member of the franchise and this move has set that philosophy in stone. If you’ve ever spent a decent amount of time with Atlanta’s franchise, the door is always open for your eventual return. Always.
We’ll see what the future holds but for now, we’ve got this fascinating piece of news to deal with. Fredi Gonzalez is back in town. He’s not the first former Brave to return to the fold. He won’t be the last. The only question now is how long this stint will last and also whether or not this will end up being Fredi’s only role with the organization going forward. It’s far too early to start really speculating about the future of this franchise past Brian Snitker’s departure but whatever the future holds, who knows if it’ll hold a curveball that drops as hard as Fredi’s return to the club.