ORLANDO, Fla — In the week after Walt Weiss was named the Braves’ manager, he said his phone blew up each time the team announced a new member of its revamped coaching staff, with so many people around baseball calling to praise each hire. Eight of 10 on Weiss’ coaching staff are newcomers.
But Tuesday at the Winter Meetings, Weiss was asked about one of the two returners, hitting coach Tim Hyers, who was retained by the Braves despite a 2025 season in which Atlanta hitters were underwhelming, to put it mildly.
“Look, I’ll say this: Tim Hyers is one of the best hitting coaches I’ve ever been around,” said Weiss, more animated while discussing Hyers than at any other point in his 20-minute session with the media. “I know that there was a narrative out there, and I get it. We were terrible in the first half offensively. And fairly or unfairly, the hitting coach takes that heat. But I’m here to tell you, Tim Hyers is outstanding as a hitting coach.
“His demeanor is tremendous. He’s got a calm demeanor. The information, the delivering of the information, is outstanding. So, I want to put that to rest.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Weiss said the Braves’ offseason priorities remain pitching first — the team wants to add a couple of front-line relievers and a starter. The Braves also will keep looking for a shortstop, though Weiss said he’s comfortable with Mauricio Dubón, the two-time Gold Glove utility man recently acquired from the Houston Astros, being the regular shortstop if they fail to add a better hitter at the position.
#Braves manager Walt Weiss said he’ll discuss with Acuña where he prefers to hit, back at leadoff or in middle of the order, before making any decisions. Said if season started now, Dubón would be the shortstop and Weiss would be comfortable w/ that, but situation could change.
— David O’Brien (@DOBrienATL) December 9, 2025
While the Braves have plenty of rotation options, they also have health questions about a few of them, along with the continuing uncertainty at the back of the bullpen with setup man Joe Jiménez, who missed all of 2025 following knee surgery and recently needed another arthroscopic clean-up procedure on that repaired knee.
Weiss reiterated what president of baseball operations/GM Alex Anthopoulos has said about Reynaldo López, a 2024 All-Star who made only one start last season before shoulder surgery: He’s a “fallback” option to move back to the bullpen, where López pitched during the 2021-2023 seasons. But for now, they plan for both López and Grant Holmes, another versatile pitcher with experience in both roles, to be stretched out at spring training to start.
Hyers had a season left on a two-year contract he signed in October 2024, but plenty of Braves fans figured — or hoped — he’d be replaced after a season in which the Braves ranked 13th in the majors in both runs (724) and OPS (.719) and 14th in slugging percentage (.399).
While there were a few key injuries to hitters in 2025, the struggles had more to do with general underperformance and some dreadful first-half performances by a few lineup regulars. Career-worst slumps by Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II in the first half were particularly alarming, and many fans wondered whether Hyers was getting through to Braves hitters as well as previous hitting coach Kevin Seitzer had for most of his long tenure with the team.
“I know that’s part of being a fan; I get it,” Weiss said. “That’s what we sign up for, and we take the heat. But (Hyers) is really good. And so I have all confidence in the world in him. I don’t have all the answers for what happened in the first half of last year. … But we have a lot of (hitters) with track records that have done it before. I believe they’ll do it again. They’re not old, they’re not past their prime.”
Hyers and Eddie Peréz are the only holdovers from the coaching staff other than Weiss, who, at 61, is much older than all of the newcomers except Darnell Coles, 63, who was hired as an assistant hitting coach.
Six of the new coaches are 45 or under, including two under 40 — pitching coach Jeremy Hefner (39) and catching coach Dustin Garneau (38), who is three years removed from an eight-season playing career with six organizations, including two years catching for the Weiss-managed Colorado Rockies in 2015 and 2016.
The average age is significantly lower than that of the previous staff. Five of those replaced were over 50, including first-base coach Tom Goodwin (57), pitching coach Rick Kranitz (67), third-base coach Fredi González (62) and manager Brian Snitker, who turned 70 in October and moved into an advisory role after the season.
Anthopoulos was adamant that age had nothing to do with any of the hires and said the extensive vetting done on each new coach was about getting a group that would mesh together. To that end, each of the new coaches has some connection to one or more of the other newcomers.
For example, new bench coach/infield instructor Tony Mansolino, 43, and first-base coach Antoan Richardson, 42, were college teammates at Vanderbilt. Mansolino was the Baltimore Orioles’ bench coach before taking over as interim manager in late May and guiding the team to a 60-59 record the rest of the way.
Richardson was the New York Mets’ first-base coach the past two seasons and had outfield coordinator and base-running instructor duties, thriving in the latter. The Mets led MLB in stolen-base success rate by a wide margin last season, 89.1 percent. Richardson will have those same duties with the Braves.
“We had a really good staff (before),” said Weiss, who was Snitker’s bench coach for the past eight seasons. “It took some of these (new) guys being available for those changes to happen, because everyone was very comfortable with the staff coming back. But some guys became available that were really enticing, and we ended up getting them in the fold.”
Richardson, in particular, was a coach the Mets sought to keep and other teams pursued.
“Once a guy like Antoan became available, things changed,” Weiss said. “We saw the impact he had with the Mets. I think they were 30th in sprint speed and fifth in stolen bases. I mean, that math doesn’t add up unless you have somebody that’s making a big difference, and that was Antoan. We feel that there’s some low-hanging fruit there with our club.
“Not that we’re built to do that necessarily, especially once Ronald (Acuña Jr.) stopped running last year and was playing a little bit more careful. But there’s some opportunity there to to create some things on the offensive end, and I think Antoan is really gonna help that. And he’s passionate about it. I think he’s gonna get our guys to be passionate about it. That’s an exciting hire.”
Weiss has kept up with Acuña’s recent winter-league performance in Venezuela and is encouraged by his stolen-base rate there. Acuña has six steals without being caught through eight games. In his first season back from a second ACL knee surgery — right knee in July 2021, left in June 2024 — Acuña stole nine bases in 10 attempts during 95 games. In his last full season in 2023, he had a majors-leading 73 in 87 attempts and was NL MVP.
“Yeah, and whether he did that or not (in Venezuela), I kind of assumed that he’d be a little more aggressive next year,” Weiss said. “I totally understand the way he played in ’25. … So I just thought naturally he’d be more aggressive (in his second season after surgery). But it’s nice to see that. He’s an exciting player and I think he’ll get back to what he was.”
After batting Acuña almost exclusively in the leadoff spot for five seasons, Snitker dropped him to third at midseason in 2025 in an attempt to spark a moribund offense, and because the Braves had another solid leadoff option in Jurickson Profar after Profar returned from an 80-game PED suspension.
Acuña hit .263 with an .888 OPS in 46 games at the third spot, compared to his .310/.980 in 43 games at leadoff last season and a career .294 average and .921 OPS in more than 3,000 plate appearances at leadoff.
Weiss said he hasn’t decided where he’ll bat Acuña.
“I’m looking forward to that one with him, I wanna pick his brain a little bit on that,” Weiss said of Acuña. “It’s enticing to have him at the at the top of the order. Because I really like when a lineup turns over that there’s teeth right away. A pitcher’s gotta run through a gauntlet as soon as that lineup turns over. So there’s some incentive to have him (bat leadoff), and he was prolific in in that position.
“The other argument is, you can put him in a more RBI (conducive) position in the lineup and hit him third. Those are conversations we’re gonna have.”