WASHINGTON — When Atlanta Braves skipper Walt Weiss crosses his arms, you get the idea: This is an imposing individual who doesn’t mess around.
Weiss, 62, captured a lot of attention earlier this month after his formidable tackle of the Angels’ Jorge Soler during a benches-clearing brouhaha. Listed at 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, the brawny Cuban outfielder is no featherweight. But Weiss, a man shaped like your wrestling coach’s wrestling coach, bulldozed Soler to the turf with ease.
“I just instinctively thought, ‘I need to get this man off his feet, or he’s going to hurt somebody,’” Weiss, an actual black belt in taekwondo, explained later on “The Show” podcast. “That’s a really big man.”
But Weiss, in his first year as Atlanta’s skipper, is making noise for reasons beyond his prowess in hand-to-hand combat. The Braves, at 18-8, have MLB’s best record entering Friday. Their plus-62 run differential is tops in baseball. No club has scored more runs, and only the Dodgers are allowing fewer runs per game.
On Thursday, the Braves pummeled the Washington Nationals 7-2 behind a stellar big-league debut from hurler JR Ritchie and four RBI from second baseman Ozzie Albies. The win, Atlanta’s seventh in its past eight games, gave the club a 5.5-game cushion in the NL East.
“Our whole roster is just, I think, deeper,” Weiss gushed after the victory. “Position players are in a much better place than they were a year ago. Our bullpen is, I think, considerably better. Our bench is considerably better. So it’s a more complete team, and it’s more versatile, more athletic.”
Coming off a massively disappointing 2025 that saw the Braves miss the postseason for the first time in nearly a decade, outside expectations were lower than normal heading into 2026. Then Atlanta had a brutal spring training, with injuries to key arms in Spencer Schwellenbach, Spencer Strider and Hurston Waldrep and a full-season PED suspension for outfielder Jurickson Profar.
None of that has slowed the Braves in the early going. The offense is clicking behind hot starts from first baseman Matt Olson, reigning Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin and center fielder Michael Harris II. That has made up for underwhelming performances from stalwart third baseman Austin Riley and superstar Ronald Acuña Jr., each of whom has an OPS in the .670s.
The pitching has been a pleasant surprise. Chris Sale is up to his usual dominance, and unheralded names such as Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder have also stepped up big-time. Strider threw 98 mph in a rehab outing this week and should be back soon. The bullpen has the third-lowest ERA in baseball.
In short, things are looking up in A-Town. And Weiss, who served as bench coach under former manager Brian Snitker the past eight seasons, has been a huge part of the story.
“There’s definitely an edge to Walt,” Riley explained. “A lot of energy. I think we feed off that. He’s been unbelievable to play for.”
Over the winter, Weiss’ hiring caused some pushback from the Braves’ fan base. Snitker, who authored a successful 10-year run as skipper that included a World Series title in 2021, announced his retirement on Oct. 1. Atlanta spent a month conducting a managerial search before landing on Weiss, Snitker’s longtime No. 2. Some saw the move as fait accompli, predetermined, more of the same with a new figurehead.
“A lot of people were clamoring for change all of a sudden,” Weiss told Yahoo Sports this week. “I said, ‘Man, you know what? Every team other than the Dodgers would be tearing a hole in the paper signing up for our last eight years.’”
And importantly, Weiss is not Snitker.
“We’re very different people, our leadership styles,” he said. “Our personalities are different, but we complemented each other very well.”
Understandably, Braves players were hesitant to compare and contrast the two, not wanting to come off as critical of Snitker, whom they still adore. But Weiss is thought to be more curious, comfortable and eager when it comes to implementing analytics. He’s more of a motivator type, whereas Snitker often adopted a write-the-lineup-and-go-get-’em style that also worked well with a veteran group. Then, of course, there’s Weiss’ physical stature and martial arts expertise.
“Walt has more of a fiery personality. He’s into UFC and fighting and stuff,” Harris told Yahoo Sports. “He’s the big bad wolf.”
Weiss, who helped oversee a nearly total refresh of the coaching staff, entered spring training with a very specific, very unique task. The continuity of Atlanta’s roster meant that most of the players were already familiar with him. But the new skipper wanted his group to see Weiss, the Manager, as an altogether different character than Weiss, the Bench Coach. He spent much of the winter ruminating on how to establish and communicate that dynamic, pondering on his opening message for spring training.
“The first day of spring training, when I had to get in front of the team, was a big day for me because it was the first time they were going to see me not as ‘Walt the Bench Coach,’” he said.
That distinction has sustained. Weiss’ Braves are playing great baseball and doing so with the intensity of their manager, who has grown a great deal since his first managerial job, a four-year stint in Colorado from 2013-16.
There’s still a long season ahead, full of roadbumps, but Weiss appears well-suited to weather the storms. And at the very least, Braves players know their skipper would throw his body on the line for their safety without hesitation.
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