ATLANTA —Shortly after Kevin Seitzer was informed he’d been fired as Braves hitting coach on Thursday, Seitzer said it was the most difficult season of his coaching career because he wasn’t able to get hitters to stop pressing and trying to do too much, to pick up the slack when others were injured or slumping and the team was struggling.
But it was also an extremely tough time for Seitzer off the field, as he confided in an interview with The Athletic on Thursday. His wife, Beth, was diagnosed with colon cancer at midseason and needed emergency surgery. This was the “family matter” that was referenced at the time, when Seitzer was away from the team in late June to be at his wife’s side before and after surgery.
When Seitzer, 63, got the call at their home in suburban Kansas City from Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, telling him he’d been relieved of his duties with a year left on his contract, the news hit hard. But not nearly as hard as it might have been if Beth wasn’t there with him, healthy.
“She beat cancer for the second time,” Seitzer said of Beth, who battled ovarian cancer 20 years ago. “Going through what we did with that this year, and to be able to come out on the other side, I couldn’t be more thankful. And it’s a testimonial, a reminder, that people should get checked (for colon cancer) even if there are no signs.”
Seitzer was fired Thursday along with assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes and catching coach Sal Fasano. The Braves haven’t announced the moves but the coaches were each informed. The Braves plan to fill both hitting-coach positions but won’t replace Fasano, who had served seven years in a position that didn’t exist with the Braves before Anthopoulos created it specifically with Fasano in mind.
Kevin Seitzer, shown with manager Brian Snitker in 2022, said he struggled to get Braves hitters to stop pressing. (Brett Davis / USA Today)
The moves came eight days after the Braves were swept by the San Diego Padres in two games in an NL Wild Card Series.
Seitzer just completed his 10th season as Braves hitting coach, easily the longest that any MLB hitting coach was with the team he coached last season. Just a year ago, Seitzer was named Baseball America’s MLB coach of the year after the Braves led the majors in virtually every major hitting category in 2023, including average (.276), OBP (.344), slugging percentage (.501), OPS (.845), runs (947) and home runs (307).
They tied the MLB single-season homer record and were the first team in history to slug .500 or better for a full season.
“It was a tough year this year, though,” Seitzer said. “I don’t blame Alex. I don’t blame him for a second.”
This season, the Braves slipped to the middle of the pack in many offensive categories. The team was beset by injuries throughout the season, playing the last four months and postseason without 2023 NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. and having four other hitters from the Opening Day lineup miss at least two months for injuries including 2023 All-Stars Austin Riley, Sean Murphy and Ozzie Albies and center fielder Michael Harris II.
But Braves officials decided that extended slumps for so many players, including each of those five mentioned along with 2023 MLB homer and RBI leader Matt Olson, warranted a coaching change and new direction. This despite manager Brian Snitker, Anthopoulos and Braves players past and present consistently praising Seitzer as a coach and person.
“It’s just part of the game,” said Seitzer, an accomplished former major-league corner infielder who spent six seasons as a hitting coach with three other MLB teams —Arizona, Toronto, Kansas City —before he was hired by Atlanta. “I have no ill will towards the Braves, and I’ve always been thankful for every day I had an opportunity to have a major league uniform on.
“We had a whole lot of success, won a World Series. I couldn’t be more thankful to Alex and the Braves for having me around this long.”
Seitzer was a .295 career hitter in 12 seasons with four MLB teams including six with the Royals, for whom he hit .323 as a rookie with 56 extra-base hits (eight triples, 15 homers) and an .869 OPS in 1987 when he was an All-Star and AL Rookie of the Year runner-up after leading the majors in plate appearances (725) and hits (207).
He was regarded as an elite situational hitter. with decent power. But Seitzer was more known for patience, command of the strike zone and an ability to put the ball in play consistently, moving runners over or getting them in. If there was a major criticism of his recent Braves teams, it was their lack of situational hitting, though that emphasis on slugging was not his doing as much as a reflection of how the team was built.
Throughout the season and even after he was fired, Seitzer never made excuses, never threw players under the proverbial bus and never criticized their effort. To the contrary.
“It was the hardest season of my life, because guys were trying so hard and couldn’t get going, and I couldn’t get them to (not press),” Seitzer said. “If they can find somebody to get these guys to not try so hard, that needs to be the guy they hire. You can talk about mechanics until the cows come home, but this (struggles this season) was all between the ears.”
The Braves made the moves now to give the coaches time to apply for openings with other teams, rather than wait until later in the offseason when some vacancies will be filled.
Seitzer said if you’d asked him last week, he absolutely would’ve said he planned to continue coaching. But after being let go Thursday, he didn’t have an answer regarding his future.
“Every day I get up — and I told Alex this — I get up and have my prayer time and give my day to God,” Seitzer said. “He’s the one in control. So, we’ll see what He’s got in store for me. If it’s to keep going, we’ll do it. And if he says to shut it down, I will.”
Seitzer, referring to how fresh the news was that he’d been let go, laughed and added, “Usually, He doesn’t respond to me in 20 minutes.”
(Photo of Kevin Seitzer with Orlando Arcia: Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire via Associated Press)
