Braves officially add three new coaches to coaching staff

It’s been a badly-kept secret for a while now that the Braves were planning on making changes to their coaching staff and it was an even worse-kept secret about the names who were coming in as replacements. Today, the Braves made the coaching staff shake-up official and none of the names involved are big surprises.

Again, it’s not a shock to see that the Braves have added Walt Weiss and Eric Young Sr. to their coaching staff. That rumor has been floating around for a while now, so it’s not shocking to see that it’s come to fruition. Walt Weiss will now return to the Braves organization after a stint as a player from 1998-2000 and this will be Eric Young Sr.’s first go-around with the Braves organization.

The Braves did make an interesting hire that didn’t get leaked out a while back and that’s the hire of Sal Fasano as the catching coach. The former journeyman catcher has been a minor-league manager for a few years now, including being named Manager of the Year in 2011 for his exploits with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats and managing the Mobile BayBears last season.

Again, Fasano spent his career as a journeyman and his journey saw him spend a little bit of time with the Braves organization as a member of the Richmond Braves back in 2008. It’s not exactly a reunion, but it’s another example of the Braves bringing in someone who used to have ties with the organization — even if those ties are extremely tenuous.

Either way, from a cursory glance the hiring of Fasano (and his 80-grade mustache) seems like a solid hire for the Braves and it should only help fortify what has been a strength for the Braves over the years. It’ll also be interesting to see how the new faces in the dugout fare when compared to the long-time coaches who they are replacing.