Atlanta Braves Dismiss Two Front Office Employees In Surprising Announcement

The Atlanta Braves announced two front office departures today that shocked fans and media alike.

The Atlanta Braves finished their 2017 season with a win on Sunday afternoon over the Miami Marlins. However, Monday mid-day, the news dropped that two prominent members of the front office would be out of a job immediately:

What happened?!

While exact details are unknown at this time, the reporting is that MLB was investigating the Atlanta Braves, and specifically Coppolella, for complaints made. The investigation covered the domestic draft, international dealing, and employee treatment. Recently, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic put out a story (subscription required) regarding some of the disarray in the Braves front office. That led the brother of former Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren, Jeff Wren, to go on a Twitter storm at various Braves sources asking about a number of things, though one of them was the reported suspension of Blakely over the summer.

The Boston Red Sox have recently gone through a signing season where they were essentially eliminated from the market and lost previous signees due to what is known as “piggyback” deals, where a smaller deal will be given to a player who is likely worth more money by giving that player’s trainer more money for a player who isn’t worthy anywhere near the money. The Braves do not have any sorts of obvious deals like that currently, and this is an investigation that has been stated to go back multiple years on the Latin market.

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What do Braves do?

Right now, things are very much in flux. John Hart will likely take over as the interim general manager from his role of President of Baseball Operations, though Bob Nightengale actually mentioned that Hart may not remain with the team either, so there could be more still to come for the Atlanta Braves. Especially with this Jerry Crasnick tweet:

The Atlanta Braves will not have to look hard to find someone interested in the general manager position with an excellent farm system and tremendous young talent. There’s a link with former Braves front office member Dayton Moore if he would choose to leave Kansas City that will likely dominate the headlines, but many excellent candidates would have interest in the job once the investigation has completed and the team can move on.

Of course, as CTTP reported yesterday, there’s also the matter of a manager who likely was on the way out anyway, but with a new GM coming in, Brian Snitker is almost certainly out as a new front office will want to bring in “their guy” to be the manager. However, that new front office will need to be hired before they can then do a managerial search and then hire their next skipper.

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What’s next for Coppy?

That last line of Nightengale’s tweet is what startled many fans and observers of the game today. Coppolella had worked the media very well in his role to become well-liked among Atlanta Braves fans, and of course, the Braves have built up a well-regarded minor league farm system. While he likely will be out of the league for a few years (Ben Cherington was out of the game for 2 1/2 years after the Red Sox stuff came to light, but he has a job with the Blue Jays now), he very well may have a role a few years down the road somewhere in the game. This will all depend on what information comes out in the full report, and we will be sure to cover that here on Call to the Pen as well.