Who is Atlanta Braves Managerial Finalist Ryan Flaherty?
Sources say Atlanta’s search has narrowed to three candidates as the process enters its final stage.
All of a sudden, the field has been narrowed.
Just two and a half weeks after Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker announced he was transitioning to an advisor role and President of Baseball Operations Alex Anthopoulos admitted the organization had not yet begun searching for a replacement, the field is seemingly down to just three.
New reporting from Mark Bowman of MLB.com on Wednesday provided some clarity on who is in and who is out. Seemingly removed from consideration are several names we all expected to be strong candidates, including former Braves catcher/Cubs manager David Ross, current bench coach Walt Weiss, former Anthopoulos hire John Gibbons, and former Braves player/current MLB Network host Mark DeRosa.
But reported to be in the final pairing are three bench coaches from across the league: George Lombard (Detroit Tigers), Danny Lehmann (Los Angeles Dodgers), and Ryan Flaherty (Chicago Cubs). We’ve discussed both Lombard (newsletter, podcast) and Lehmann (newsletter, podcast); let’s talk about Flaherty.
Yes, he’s a former Braves player
Flaherty was a first-round pick of the Cubs in 2008 out of nearby Vanderbilt University, although he moved to the Baltimore Orioles in the Rule 5 draft prior to debuting for Chicago. After six years as a utilityman for Baltimore, he joined Atlanta after spring training in 2018. It was somewhat of a family affair for Flaherty; he’s married to the sister of then-Braves outfielder Nick Markakis. He met Ashley Dutko while playing with Markakis in Baltimore in 2014, marrying her in 2016 after Markakis signed with the Braves as a free agent the season before.
Flaherty played for one more year after his single season with Atlanta (one in which he was DFA’d in August and finished out the year in Gwinnett), retiring after the 2019 season. He immediately transitioned into coaching, accepting a role as an advance scout & development coach with the San Diego Padres and rising to bench coach before joining the Cubs as Craig Counsell’s bench coach in January of 2024.
This obviously checks off the Alex Anthopoulos connection, as well - AA thought enough of him as a player to add him after the Philadelphia Phillies released him late in spring training.
No, he doesn’t have much experience…but none of the finalists do
Flaherty has been a bench coach for both San Diego and Chicago, and that’s typically the person that takes over if the manager is out. He had a short stint as acting manager of the Padres in Jume of 2022 when Bob Melvin was unavailable due to COVID-19 protocols, relinquishing the role when Melvin was cleared to return to the dugout. So essentially, he’s never been a Major League manager for any length of time longer than a few games.
But here’s the thing: Neither Lombard nor Lehmann has been an MLB manager, either.
Anthopoulos addressed that in his end-of-season press conference, telling the gathered media (including Braves Today) that he was not going to limit or artificially restrict the candidate pool for the team’s next manager.
But despite Anthopoulos seemingly not caring about whether someone has been a manager before, there are some differences in how much MLB coaching experience each candidate has:
Lombard: ten seasons as a major league coach; five in LA as first base coach, five in Detroit as bench coach
Lehmann: three seasons as LA’s bench coach
Flaherty: one season as San Diego’s bench coach, two seasons as Chicago’s
How much does this matter? We genuinely don’t know, but it’s clear that Lombard has an advantage over the other two options. That hasn’t stopped MLB teams from being interested in Flaherty’s services, however; he was a finalist for the Padres job that went to Mike Schildt in 2023 and it’s believed that not only is he a candidate for their current opening, but also to potentially fill openings in Baltimore and Minnesota.1
So, who is getting the job?
The longer this drags out, the more I start to wonder if it’s Lehmann. With the Dodgers in the World Series, the Braves would not announce the news until after the Fall Classic were over. LA’s long layoff prior to the World Series meant that Lehamnn’s already had plenty of time to interview virtually, so if that was a box that needed to be checked before hiring Lombard or Flaherty, the team could already have announced one of those as manager.
With the caveat that I still want Lombard to get the job (and he could be announced any day now), I’d rank the likeliest outcomes as Lehmann, Lombard, and Flaherty, in that order.
My official prediction is that we either get an announcement of George Lombard today or that it’s Danny Lehmann after the World Series. If Ryan Flaherty leaves the Cubs, I’m guessing it’s likely to go either back to San Diego or to Baltimore.
Let’s see what Alex Anthopoulos does.
Lombard previously interviewed for vacancies in Miami and Chicago (last year) and in previous seasons with Detroit and Pittsburgh. Lehmann, to my knowledge, hasn’t interviewed anywhere else.