By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

Three candidates are interviewing for the manager position for the Atlanta Braves in 2026. Who should be hired?

Candidate A managed a team for four seasons, with two winning seasons and two losing seasons. One year, his team made the playoffs, where they were swept. His overall record includes a winning percentage of .480. He won a World Series title as a player.

Candidate B managed for nine seasons with one team. He had a winning record for this team in only two seasons, with seven losing seasons. The winning seasons were in seasons 1 and 4, ending his tenure with five losing seasons. Then he went to a second years. He also had two winning seasons (seasons 1 and 2), having seven straight losing seasons, losing more than 100 games twice, ending his last stint, fired after only winning 17.5 percent of his games. He did win one manager of the year award, but never a division title. His overall winning percentage is 46%. He coached in five playoff games, winning one of them.

Candidate C managed for ten seasons, having a winning record in seven of them. He won a World Series title as a manager. His teams won six division titles. He has a winning record in playoff games. He has two seasons of 100+ wins, and two more seasons with 90 or more wins.

Candidate A is David Ross, who managed the Chicago Cubs for a few years. A fan site told me “everyone is calling for Ross to be hired.” Well, several sites are reposting the article, at least. He was a backup catcher for Atlanta for four seasons, and won that title as a Cub. He’s a nice guy, I hear. I cheered for him as a Brave, but does he have a better record than Snitker?

Candidate B is Bud Black, who managed both the Padres and the Rockies, until he was fired earlier this year. Yet Hunter Cookston with the Sporting News titled his headline “Braves predicted to replace Brian Snitker with 1193-win manager, 2-time World Series Champion.” Just so you know, Black didn’t win a World Series title as a manager (just one game in the playoffs in a 3-1 series loss). If he won any World Series title, it was as a player or assistant coach.

It sounds impressive, until you look at the whole record.

Black’s career of having four winning seasons in 18 seasons of managing was not mentioned in the article, just his last season and the claim “Black would be a strong candidate to replace Snitker. He’s a respected and experienced manager who simply didn’t have much talent to work with in Colorado.” But he had six straight losing seasons even before the early season disaster, which prompted the humor site The Babylon Bee to joke that the Rockies were being demoted to a church softball league.

I don’t think that’s where the Braves should go for their next manager.

Who is Candidate C? It’s Brian Snitker, the very person that the reporters are calling for to be fired. Think it’s a wise move to get rid of Atlanta’s manager now?

Another article called for Ron Washington to be hired. His overall record is .504, better than Ross or Black. He did coach his team to two World Series appearances, and two division titles. But unfortunately, his record with the Angels in the last two years is .429.

What’s next? Skip Schumaker? He has a .451 record as a manager with the Marlins. The team could promote Walt Weiss, who had a .437 record as a manager, but has been a great assistant throughout this great Braves run.

I know Fredi Gonzalez was the last Braves manager fired, but he had a better managerial record than anyone who has been suggested, with a .506 win percentage and several playoff appearances. He has five winning seasons among his eight full seasons (and two partial seasons with losing records). Maybe Eddie Perez should get a shot.

But the Braves should be wary of media-touted candidates with articles that don’t tell the whole story of their record. Nor should they be so quick to dispose of Brian Snitker, whose win percentage of .549 is just behind Bobby Cox at .556.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.