The Chatter’s Box: Atlanta’s Pierce Johnson talks to The Rockies Insider

The two best teams in Major League Baseball entering the week of May 5 have been the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

Together they’ve won 48 games through the first six weeks of the season or, to put it painfully for those on the Southside of the Windy City, more games than the Chicago White Sox in all six months of their 2024 campaign.

Atlanta, the odds on favorite to win the National League East, had the unfortunate draw of playing both the Padres and Dodgers in their respective home fortresses to open their 2025 campaign.

Brian Snitker’s club began 0-7 before returning to Truist Park for the home opener. 

Coupled with the absences of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider, not to mention the loss of prized free agent acquisition Jurickson Profar for 80-games due to a PED suspension, Atlanta simply got hit on the chin with an overhand right and took a standing 10-count soon after the National Anthem.

Now back into the rhythm of expectations, the club is on the precipice of reaching .500 following series wins in five of their last six tries. The 2025 All-Star Game hosts have a lot further to climb to the top of the standings as 10 teams entered Thursday at .500 and above.

The improved performances have nothing to do with dominance in one area or another. The pitching staff has a 3.59 ERA, 12th-best in MLB, since the start of their great play on April 18. They rank even worse in terms of fWAR (1.8) at 18th. Offensively, they’ve amassed 3.0 fWAR (14th) with a .721 OPS (16th). Consider it the intangible ability of knowing how to win games.

No matter how long it takes to reach the relative security of a playoff spot, there’s confidence in their clubhouse that such a prediction will come to fruition.

Welcome to The Chatter’s Box, a new Just Baseball series from Patrick Lyons. Because post-game media availability is focused entirely on the details of the previous nine innings, the conversations that take place in the clubhouse or during batting practice before a contest can take on a much more relaxed and jovial tone.

The following is a conversation with Pierce Johnson before the Rockies-Atlanta game on April 30.

Patrick Lyons: When you get back home to Denver to play the Rockies, what’s the itinerary for you?

Pierce Johnson: I stay at home, so that’s the best, right? Sleep in my own bed. Obviously, see my immediate family. Couple friends come to games. But outside of that it’s still a work trip, so I don’t get to do too much. I stayed at the hotel last night. Just night-game to day-game, tough transition. Catch up with everybody over there. It’s always a fun trip. It’s a busy trip, but it’s a fun trip.

Lyons: For the guys who know you’re from Colorado, I imagine none of them are hitting you up for sightseeing suggestions. But they might ask for some survival tips for three days at altitude, especially the younger players.

Johnson: Some guys ask, but as much as it is something that affects the game, I don’t want to tell guys too much because I don’t want them to think that much more about it. It is a conversation to be had. Sometimes, if they do approach me, I’ll tell them my thoughts and transition. But there’s always adjustments you got to make everywhere you go. So it’s one of those things where you have to know yourself and be able to make the adjustments on the fly. But we have conversations about it every once in a while.

Lyons: You’re performing well once again, but it’s been a sluggish start to the season for the team. It didn’t appear to be the case then and even now that this team was overly concerned with that. Maybe it’s just too early, but is it fair to say that no one hit the panic button at any point? 

Johnson: No, we didn’t. I mean, you could see guys pressing a little bit, but who doesn’t? This is our job, right? People don’t understand we had to go face two playoff teams in their barn and we had exhibition games in Arizona prior to that, so we hadn’t even seen Atlanta yet. We had a real tough stretch to start, plus the Padres had some elite starters, their bullpen is phenomenal. And then you face the Dodgers. Obviously, they’re the giant that they are. And then you come home, you face the Phillies, a really good squad, too. We won that series. Baseball, you’re gonna go through stretches. If we would have lost seven in a row in June, it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal. But because you start off on seven, it’s a whole different story. So nobody really hit the panic button. And I feel like guys are finally coming into their own and getting comfortable again, and getting used to the grind of hotel to hotel and back to home, plane after plane. I feel like everybody’s kind of getting in their groove and going from there.

Lyons: Was the secret that your veterans, many of whom are All-Stars, were able to lead by example? Were they able to communicate that to the younger guys that may not know everything will be fine? The leaders know how good the team is and that everything is going to click eventually, right?

Johnson: I think that starts off with like (Austin) Riley (Matt) Olson and (Marcell) Ozuna. Those guys and (Sean) Murphy, from a position player standpoint right there, they’re kind of the shepherds to the young guys in that aspect. For the pitchers, you got Chris Sale, who’s done it for what, 15 years? You’ve got really good people to help shepherd the young guys be like, ‘Hey, this is what we do. This is how we do it. Push a little more here, take a little off here.’ Whatever it may be. But we’ve got a really good, solid group of guys in there that kind of help the younger guys go about their business the right way.

Lyons: As long as he’s been around the game, was it surprising to you that Sale is making his first start at Coors Field?

Johnson: I actually had just heard that this morning. I find that wild because he’s played long enough you would think that he would have had a start, maybe two here. He was in the American League for so long, and you only see those teams once every three years back then and it might be on the road (when you do play). Kind of wild that he hasn’t pitched here.

Lyons: Well he pitched in Denver as a rookie reliever in 2011. He gave up only two hits during those two appearances and they were against Charlie Blackmon who was playing in his 19th and 20th career games as a rookie himself.

Johnson: No way. That’s great baseball history.

Lyons: Do you have one like that from your career of giving up the first career homer to a guy?

Johnson: Well, my first home run allowed was Mike Trout. That’s a pretty good one to add. So I’ll be on his Hall of Fame highlight reel.

Lyons: Glad to hear you’re headed for Cooperstown. 

Johnson: Yeah. It was pretty cool when Matt Holliday came back to the Rockies. I faced him in 2018. That was really cool. It’s just cool being able to grow at that park, come to so many games. You watch so many good players and then you get to call it your home field. You also get to come here to visit a lot western divisions for so long. It’s just, it’s really cool to be able to come here and kind of have the nostalgia pitching here and then remembering all the games I came to (as a youth).

Lyons: Coors Field just celebrated its 30th Anniversary the other day, too. Dante Bichette, walk-off homer in the 14th inning to open this building.

Johnson: I actually was telling the bullpen that the other day. I was like, ‘Did you know this is the third oldest ballpark in the National League?’ And they’re like, ‘No”. It’s only Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium. And they’re like, kind of thinking about it for a while. ‘I guess you’re right. I didn’t realize that.’ This is a beautiful park, right? It’s unbelievable. You got the skyline in the background. It’s a big ballpark. It’s a beautiful playing service so it’s just one of those things that it’s always going to be fun playing here.