This story was excerpted from Mark Bowman’s Braves Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ATLANTA -- Fredi González spent the past few decades surrounded by great players like Chipper Jones, Miguel Cabrera and Gunnar Henderson. He spent this past spring serving as a volunteer coach at Ursinus College, a NAIA school located near his Philadelphia-area home.
Instead of basking in the sun during Spring Training, he dealt with the winter chill on those days when it was warm enough for the players to leave the gym for a few minutes to play catch. Instead of helping to mold Major Leaguers, he was just delighting in the opportunity to be around young players, whose passion for baseball often outweighed their physical talents.
Ursinus finished 20-20, an eight-win improvement from the 2024 season, but not good enough to qualify for the postseason.
“I told the kids at the last game that they did more for me at this point of my career than I did for them,” González said. “You get something taken away from you in October and you can’t get back in the game and you don’t go to Spring Training for the first time in 40 years, I told my wife I need to go volunteer and give back. It was really fun.”
González certainly looked content when we saw him last week while the Braves were in Philadelphia. It hurt when the Orioles didn’t retain him as their bench coach at the end of last year. But he stayed busy and close to the game.
Along with serving as a volunteer coach, González recently spent time making $300 a game to evaluate umpires for MLB. He even recently bought a ticket to see Paul Skenes pitch in Philadelphia. And as recently as this past Friday, he filled in for Braves broadcaster C.J. Nitkowski on Sirius XM.
González is also already lined up to join Brian McCann as a member of manager Mark DeRosa’s Team USA coaching staff during next year’s World Baseball Classic.
“My wife told me, 'You’re the busiest unemployed person I’ve ever seen,'” González said with a laugh.
Well, life got a little busier on Sunday morning when González saw a text from a number he didn’t recognize. He heeded Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos’ request to call him and was offered the chance to become Atlanta’s third-base coach.
This was completely out of the blue. González sat in Braves manager Brian Snitker’s office five days earlier, just catching up with his longtime friend. For the skeptics who believe the ball was put in motion with this meeting last week, the office door was never closed. The Athletic’s David O’Brien and I went in Snitker’s office to catch up with González like we did back before all interviews with managers were staged in a stale interview room.
It truly was just a coincidence that González got this call a few days after being in the Braves’ clubhouse as a visitor. So, yeah I believe he was shocked when he was offered the chance to replace Matt Tuiasosopo, whose reign as Atlanta’s third-base coach essentially ended Friday night, when he nearly got Ronald Acuña Jr. thrown out at the plate and possibly injured.
Why was González willing to accept this job in the middle of a season? One reason was the strong bond he shares with Snitker, the man who replaced him as Atlanta’s manager six weeks into the 2016 season. González sent Snitker a bottle of champagne after his first career victory and continued to support his pal from afar.
González's son Alex lives in Atlanta and his daughter Gigi lives a few hours away in Statesboro. They’ll all be together for Father’s Day for the first time in recent memory.
But the most significant pull back to Atlanta may have been the chance to rejoin Bobby Cox’s team. González started to get choked up on Tuesday when he began speaking about Cox. González served as the Hall of Fame manager’s third-base coach from 2003-06.
When González left to become the Marlins manager in 2007, Snitker became Cox’s third-base coach in Atlanta. Snitker remained in that role when González returned to Atlanta to become the Braves manager in '11.
And of course, Snitker replaced González as Atlanta’s manager a few years later.
Snitker and González will forever be linked as a pair of coaches who have always strived to make Cox proud. This bond will allow them to work once again without a hint of awkwardness.
“There’s only a handful of people, when I say a handful, I mean less than five, that I would do this for, and Snit is one,” González said.