Travis Snider: 'It was an easy decision'

MILWAUKEE -- Tuesday night, Travis Snider took his first at-bat with the Pirates since 2014, the most recent time he was on their roster. He joined the active roster as soon as it expanded from 25 to 40 players as a left-handed bat off the bench.

“Familiarity, comfort level, coaching staff,” Snider said before Tuesday’s game regarding why he chose to sign a minor league deal with the Pirates after the Orioles released him. “These guys have seen me probably at the best in my career. Getting a chance to work with Jeff Branson, Clint [Hurdle], being around this clubhouse. The friends, I consider my baseball family. It was an easy decision when it came down to making that final choice, for me and my wife. We were pretty sold on coming back here.”

Snider found playing time hard to come by with the Orioles. 

“All excuses aside, the American League bench role-play situation is different than the National League,” he said. “That's one thing that helped me out a lot here was getting those pinch-hits, being able to take what you're working on in practice and translate it into 90, 95 miles an hour, which was great, but the adjustment, like I said, in the American League that I didn't make.”

Getting consistent at-bats in a 10-game span with Indianapolis helped Snider regain his timing. Now he is working on returning to the approach that helped him put together such a strong second half in 2014.

“That was a big thing for me the last couple of years, is trusting my ability to hit the fastball to left-center and when the guys hang breaking stuff, you make them pay,” Snider said. “I think I got into a mode where it was swing-swing or take-take instead of, ’OK, I'm looking for one pitch in one spot and if I don't get it until two strikes, I'm going to battle.’ I think that's where, more than anything, being ready to hit when you get your pitch instead of trying to do too much when you're in the box.”

Game story: Cole roughed up early, Nelson continues to dominate Pirates.

Pirates notebook: Six players added to roster on expansion day. 

Coverage of the Brewers from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.