It’s March, Spring Training is in full swing, the Texas Rangers won the World Series more than four months ago, everyone is gearing up for the regular season to kick off this month and we are relitigating the MLB postseason format.
Again.
Appearing on the Foul Territory show with Scott Braun, Todd Frazier, Erik Kratz & Adam Jones on Friday, Braves manager Brian Snitker gave his thoughts on that format, under which Atlanta has been eliminated by the Phillies in four games each of the past two seasons. The former Phillie Kratz asked Snitker whether the organization has had any internal discussions about how to get past their recent NLDS woes.
The Braves’ ninth-year skipper began by explaining what his team did to gear up for the 2023 NLDS as opposed to the 2022 one: holding intrasquad games at Truist Park, letting fans in for free to watch, batting practice, etc.
Then he dove into an answer that was — well, let’s just say, a little lacking in introspection.
“The biggest thing we haven’t done is hit,” Snitker said. “And I just don’t think in baseball — you know, I always worry about four days off at the All-Star Break, but everybody’s going through that, not just a couple of teams — you know, it’s hard to hit velocity when you haven’t seen anything in five days. So that’s my biggest thing.
“We had a team that set all these records and everything offensively, and we didn’t hit much in the postseason. I don’t know that it’s approach. I think it’s just a matter of, I don’t like the system, quite honestly.”
Since MLB added an extra two Wild Card teams, and the top two division winners in each league have been rewarded first-round byes, the five-day rest period before the Division Series has been a point of contention in the sport. Teams with byes are a combined 3-5 in the DS under the current structure.
It’s easy to be lazy and blame the format as the reason three 100-plus-loss teams, like the Braves, got bounced in the Division Series last year. Much harder is 10 seconds of research. Doing so would reveal obvious flaws with each of those three teams that, even at the time, before the playoffs began, presented them huge question marks for October.
The Braves had starting pitching health concerns. The Dodgers had no starting pitching at all. The Orioles had no playoff experience. Not only did each of those teams lose: It’s very easy to argue, if you watched the actual baseball games, that they each lost largely for those exact reasons, not because they had too much rest.
The Astros were the one bye team that didn’t lose in the Division Series in 2023, despite winning only 90 games in the regular season. Houston didn’t have a flaw as obvious as those three — and they were the one team with six straight ALCS’ worth of playoff experience to get them through such adversity, ultimately losing in seven games to the Rangers in the ALCS. They also won the World Series the year prior, fresh off a first-round bye.
Perhaps Snitker is just voicing his general concerns with the playoff format, not necessarily blaming it for the Braves’ defeat. Perhaps he would’ve said the same even if the Braves had won the whole thing. But on the heels of a second-straight NLDS walloping, it’ll naturally read as an excuse, and there’s no getting around that. Besides, “I don’t know that it’s approach. I think it’s just a matter of, I don’t like the system” is pretty unambiguous.
The frustrations are understandable. Baseball is a game of rhythm, and its players are creatures of habit. The Braves had four extra-base hits all series after posting an .845 OPS in the regular season. Matt Olson had zero. Ronald Acuña Jr. had just one, going 2-for-14 overall. The Dodgers fared similarly: Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went a combined 1-for-21. And there’s your top four in National League MVP voting.
But there’s some necessary self-evaluation here that Snitker is missing entirely, and it has nothing to do with whether to let fans watch intrasquad games in the off days before the NLDS. It’s more organizational than that.
Maybe 2022 forced the lesson upon them, but the Phillies have come to understand that some degree of pacing in the regular season sets them up well for October. That’s not to say the 14-win gap between the two clubs in the regular season happened because the Phillies didn’t try. The Braves were the better regular season team. But the Phillies’ approach was clear, and it worked.
Whether it was Zack Wheeler refraining from throwing out of his shoes with max-effort velocity down the stretch, Trea Turner attempting only 30 stolen bases the whole regular season or Bryce Harper DHing several times a week just before October, the Phillies withheld their punches for six months and emptied the tank when it mattered. Three-hundred seven homers is fun, but maybe the Braves could learn from them.
Snitker was asked at the end of his response what he’d do if MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred called him and asked, if the Braves won the division, whether he’d elect to participate in the Wild Card Series or keep the rest days. Snitker dodged the question, claiming he doesn’t want an option – just the right amount of rest that doesn’t impact the results, or whatever.
But if, in this hypothetical, Manfred demanded an answer, we all know what Snitker would choose. He indicated as much a minute earlier.
“We’re gonna have to deal with it,” he said, mid-complaint. “We better figure it out, because we are gonna try like hell to win the division and have five days off again.”
Yes. Of course they are.
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