Are the Atlanta Braves going to lose a coach?

At the moment, there are 8 open managing positions at the MLB level that are not filled. Are the Atlanta Braves going to lose a coach to one of them?

The one we would most likely lose is Ron Washington, and yes it has already been reported that Washington, the current 3rd base coach for the Atlanta Braves, is possibly at the top of the list for AJ Preller who is trying to fill his coaching spot for the San Diego Padres.

In fact, it has been reported that Ron Washington has had a formal interview with the Padres. Reports state that the Padres are indeed very serious about offering the job to Washington.

We will probably have several days of reports circulating before anything is finalized though.

Before we go any further on that topic, I do want to go ahead and state that I don’t see any other coach leaving the Atlanta Braves this winter, unless they are terminated.

The one exception to that might be Walt Weiss. Perhaps, his former managing stint with the Colorado Rockies will entice a team to call, but being honest, I don’t think any team is endearing to phone him because his stint with the Rockies wasn’t great.

The Wash Line

Back to Ron Washington though. Many will remember his stint as the manager of the Texas Rangers, where he led them to World Series berths in both 2010 and 2011. In fact, he was within a strike on multiple occasions of bringing home the 2011 World Series title.

His managing days in Arlington didn’t end on a positive note, however, as off the field occurrences led to Washington stepping down as the Rangers manager in 2014.

Obviously between this new report linking him to San Diego, and the fact that the Atlanta Braves showed interest in him being the next manager before ultimately removing the interim tag from Brian Snitker, shows that most around the game respect him still and believe he could be a leader for a young team.

For the record:  I think they’re right.

I believe it would be a pretty big blow to lose “Wash” because as we have all seen on multiple occasions, he’s one of the first on the field and he is always helping players like Dansby Swanson, and Ozzie Albies out on the field with his famous fungo bat.

Only 30 MLB managing jobs exist in this world, and while it would be tough to lose him, I think we should all be happy for him and understand. With that said, for the Atlanta Braves own selfish motives:  we hope he stays.