Braves' Brian Snitker Declines to Place Blame on Michael Harris II

Center fielder Michael Harris II might be the perfect microcosm for the Atlanta Braves 2025 season. Except somehow, Harris has gone through even more extreme highs and lows.

The 2022 National League Rookie of the Year is in the midst of another low point right now. He went 0-for-4 in the 5-3 series finale loss to the Miami Marlins on Sunday. With the defeat, the Braves suffered a series defeat to the NL East's last place team.

In the series, Harris went 2-for-12 (.167). The center fielder is now 3-for-30 (.100) with a double, one RBI and one stolen base in the past eight games.

With this latest slump, a reporter again asked Braves manager Brian Snitker about Harris after Sunday's loss. Snitker, though, tried to deflect the question and talked about the team's offense overall.

"He's not the only one either, so I'm not going to put the onus on him," Snitker said, via FanDuel Sports TV's postgame stream. "I mean, scoring runs and all that is a team thing. We need everybody to be clicking, and sometimes guys aren't, and the other guys need to pick them up too."

It was an interesting exchange because nobody was wrong. The question was appropriate. To paraphrase, the reporter asked something along the lines of -- how tough is it to watch Harris struggle given what he's capable of.

Snitker rightfully answered Harris isn't the only one struggling, and his point about teammates needing to pick him up are well taken. Baseball is a team game.

At the same time, it would be understandable if Braves fans took exception to the phrase, "I'm not going to put the onus on him."

The question was in regards to Harris's struggles. It wasn't about Harris within the greater picture of the Braves offense.

When talking about the center fielder's slump, the entire onus should be on him. Is it someone else's fault he's struggling?

Harris experienced a bad week. We all have them in every line of work. The problem is Harris has had a lot of bad weeks.

The center fielder is batting .223 with an on-base percentage now below .250. If he goes 1-for-3 with a single Monday, his .337 slugging percentage will barely decrease.

Overall, he has a .585 OPS and a 0.4 WAR.

Snitker is know as being a player's coach. He defends his guys in front of the media to a fault. It's an admirable trait, and I completely understand it.

However, Snitker has been defending Harris slumping for almost three months now. Maybe it's time to try a different tactic with his answers?