Braves President John Schuerholz offered interim GM John Hart the "option of taking over the team's GM duties full time" after
the club fired GM Frank Wren on Monday, according to sources cited by Jeff Passan of YAHOO SPORTS. If Hart were to accept the job, "it's likely he would groom" Assistant GM John Coppolella, whom the Braves retained. It is "conceivable Coppolella could be elevated to the job now," though the team "could widen its search were Hart to turn it down" (
SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/23). CBSSPORTS.com's Jon Heyman noted with the Braves, Hart has a team with a "wonderful tradition, an operation he has called the 'gold standard,' a nice young foundation, and a pitching staff with some serious talent." He also has a manager he "seems to like in Fredi Gonzalez, and an up-and-coming" potential GM in Coppolella who he "likes very much." He also has Schuerholz, "so close to Hart he always seemed like his partner even all those years they worked in opposite leagues." Hart may be the "perfect short answer." Heyman: "He was going to help through the transition period anyway, so why not just extend that period from a month or two to perhaps a year or two?" That would "give him time to get the Braves back and running as a World Series threat, and time to groom a successor, who would seem to be" Coppolella (
CBSSPORTS.com, 9/23).
SEEDS OF DISCONTENT: ESPN.com's Buster Olney wrote the Braves' GM change "must have been as much about personality clashes as it was about record, because in the big picture," the team won a lot of games under Wren, "in light of the club's budget." In the past, the Braves were "generally a model of stability and cohesion, but there have been increasing rumblings about one member of the front office not liking each other, about unhappiness with how much Wren included" his brother Jeff in the process, and "about the seats used in the scout section" (ESPN.com, 9/24). Baseball writer Rob Neyer noted there were some "philosophical differences between Frank Wren and some of the other people in the organization above him." If the team "had won more than two playoff games" in his seven years and had not spent a combined $137M on free agents Dan Uggla and B.J. Upton, it "would have been difficult to fire him.” SI.com's Tom Verducci said he was "surprised" by the firing, but added, "In today’s game, I get it -- especially now that they are trying to build a team going forward to that new ballpark" ("MLB Now," MLB Network, 9/23).
