It’s that time of the year again when general managers, managers, and coaches start getting relieved of their duties for the performance of their team’s play in the past season. The first one to bite the dust was Braves general manager, Frank Wren. Wren took over on October 11, 2007, and has only had two losing seasons: His first and his last. Wren has spent 15 years in the Braves organization, and his release is a surprise to some.
In Wren’s six seasons as GM, his Atlanta ballclub as made the postseason three times, and barely missed the playoffs another two times. Speculation is that Wren is being fired due to the club’s second September collapse in the last four seasons. The Braves have lost eight of their previous nine games, and have dropped to three games below .500 at 76-79. John Hart will serve as the team’s interim GM, but will hand it over after the season ends. Hart will stay long enough to find a new general manager, but will soon after resume his role as an analyst on MLB Network.
It is rumored that the Braves will hire assistant GM, John Coppolella to fill the permanent role as GM, but others have said that they have targeted Kansas City’s General Manager, Dayton Moore. The kicker there is that Moore is under contract through 2016, and the Braves would have to give up something in return. The obvious choice, to me at least, would be to go with Coppolella until Moore’s contract is up.
The firing of Wren has got to make you wonder what the Braves will do with Fredi Gonzalez. Gonzalez has been the team’s manager for four seasons. In those four seasons, he is 355-286, and has been to the playoffs twice in that stretch. The team has said that he is safe, but it makes little sense to fire the general manager, and not the manager.
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