Breaking: Eric Young Sr. will join Ron Washington with the Angels and depart the Braves
In the same offseason, the Braves are losing their first base coach and third base coach.
Long time Atlanta Braves first base coach Eric Young has confirmed he is leaving the team to join now-departed third base coach Ron Washington’s new staff with the Los Angeles Angels.
The 56-year-old Young joined the Braves in 2018. Following a fifteen-year tenure in Major League Baseball, which included a 1993 season as a founding member of the Colorado Rockies, Young joined the Houston Astros coaching staff, serving as their base running and outfield coordinator. In 2010, he was hired by the Arizona Diamondbacks as their first base coach, where he would go on to teach on the field for Colorado and Atlanta.
The Braves have had remarkably little turnover in their major league coaching staff under manager Brian Snitker. Atlanta’s granted requested permission for their coaches to interview, but departures have been infrequent until this offseason.
Ron Washington’s staff is projected to be one of the more diverse coaching staffs in MLB; Washington is the first Black manager to be hired since 2020, and various names have been floated such as Torii Hunter as 1st base coach, Ryan Goins as infield coach (a hire now confirmed), and Clint Hurdle as bench coach (a role he has since denied interest in).
It’s unknown who Atlanta is currently evaluating to fill the holes at 1st and 3rd; we reported a list of potential names as soon as Washington’s hire became official, and very few of those candidates have taken themselves out of the running. The Yankees reportedly approached former Cubs manager (and former Braves catcher) David Ross about an assistant role on their staff and he declined, preferring a managerial role; that would potentially rule him out of an assistant job in Atlanta.
UPDATE: Braves insider David O’Brien speculated that Atlanta’s plan would be to hire direct replacements for the two roles rather than adjust coaching assignments.