Atlanta Braves: The Search for the Next Manager
Atlanta Braves Manager: Replacing Fredi Gonzalez
On Tuesday, the Braves fired their manager, and from the reports, the Braves didn’t exactly handle it well, to say the least.
While this season’s 9-29 start to the season certainly is not something to rejoice and celebrate, it’s hardly Fredi’s fault that the team is struggling. The Braves have stripped their roster down to rebuild their team by stacking their minor leagues with arguably the most depth of any minor league system in the game. The issue is that means the major league product is pretty rough to watch.
The fan outcry, media outcry, and constant rumor mongers finally came true, and though Fredi didn’t allow a single home run from the pitcher’s mound or strike out once this season from the batter’s box, he’s out of a job.
So who do the Braves bring in going forward? For the rest of the season, they’ve promoted their AAA manager, Brian Snitker to the major league club. Snitker has a great reputation as a teacher and a great manager working with young players, so he will be a good guy to likely guide the team as they bring up Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Rio Ruiz, Tyrell Jenkins, Lucas Sims, and possibly guys like Chris Ellis and Dustin Peterson from their minor league system before the end of the season for some significant run at the major league level.
Snitker, however, isn’t the guy for the job long term. So who will be the guy going forward for Atlanta?
Next: The In House Candidates
Atlanta Braves Manager: Terry Pendleton and Eddie Perez
Terry Pendleton
Pendleton has been on the Braves coaching staff since 2001. He spent from 2001-2010 as the hitting coach, and once Fredi was hired as manager, he moved to the first base coach. He’s been moved to the bench coach role next to Snitker. Pendleton has been a leading candidate for a manager’s role before, but he’s removed his name from consideration each time before he could get to the final steps of the process. There was a thought that this was due to him wanting the Atlanta job.
Whether the Braves will offer Pendleton the job or not, he’s a guy who the next manager should ensure stays around on the club as an integral link to the Braves past and a guy who has always been someone willing to call players to the carpet for their behavior, and he’s also got the respect of players to do that while not in the manager’s role and still be listened to within the clubhouse.
Eddie Perez
Eddie will be moving in from the bullpen coach position to the first base coach job to allow Pendleton to move to the bench coach role. Perez has been rumored as an elite candidate for many jobs last offseason, but he chose not to interview for any jobs last offseason. As his profile increases, it will be harder to keep him from interviewing with these advancing jobs with other organizations.
Perez has tremendous respect and connection with the Latin players within the Braves system, and he also is known to be very much a player’s coach from his position. He’s been viewed by many “in the know” as the next Braves manager, and some even assumed that he was not moved to the interim role this season so as to not tarnish his managerial record, which is interesting to consider, but I do think it could be smart to have him just moving to the dugout to get the “feel” of the game from that vantage point.
Next: Outside Big Name
Atlanta Braves Manager: Bud Black
The big rumor already swirling is that the Braves have been talking with Bud Black about the position already. Black is currently working as a special assistant to the GM with the Los Angeles Angels, so he’s not on the field with any team.
Black was a pitching coach from 2000-2006 with the Angels, so he’s got good experience coaching and handling a pitching staff, and with the way the Braves are building their future around elite arms, a manager with a good understanding of pitching could be a big focus.
Black’s big concern could be his financial demands. He reportedly was hired to take over the Washington Nationals job (that eventually went to Dusty Baker), but he declined the position due to the compensation offered being far too low. Black is a guy who has a .477 career winning percentage and actually has less wins in his managerial career in 9 seasons than the recently fired Gonzalez has in his similar amount of games (Black has 1,362 games managed with 649 wins. Fredi has 1,402 games maanged with 710 wins, so a 61 win difference with only 40 games managed difference).
Next: Former Player Surprise Candidate
Atlanta Braves Manager: Joe Girardi
Because I want to throw one big curveball here, I did a bit of research here, and when you start considering other managers who may lose their job this season, and while Brad Ausmus would still rank well ahead of him on my personal “hot seat” rankings, Girardi is very possibly second. My first thought after looking that up was that there’s no way they could fire him because of contract, but then I looked up and his most recent contract runs out after the 2017 season, so firing him this year doesn’t really cost the Yankees THAT much money (as if money would really sway such a decision for them).
Girardi had some flirtations with leaving New York when his last contract was up, and those contract negotiations did not go smoothly, so it is feasible that he could even choose to walk away from the Yankees after 2017 if he does stay.
If he were to leave the Yankees, he would immediately shoot to the top of probable candidates, and he’s the type of guy that I could see the purse strings being opened in Atlanta to hire. Girardi and GM John Coppolella of the Braves know each other fairly well from Coppy’s days working with the Yankees front office before being hired by the Braves.
The other consideration is possibly hiring a guy like Pendleton or Perez for 2017 with the knowledge that they could pursue Girardi after 2017 if he fulfills his contract and likely keep those guys in the fold due to their long-time loyalty to the team.
It could be a very, very interesting situation as it unfolds this offseason.