The Braves have fired general manager Frank Wren, the team announced. John Hart, a senior advisor with the club, will become the interim GM and will also be part of a three-man team (along with team president John Schuerholz and former manager Bobby Cox) in charge of finding a permanent general manager.
It was reported earlier today by David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that a front office move was on the verge of happening, and Wren’s firing comes just a day after the Braves were officially eliminated from postseason contention. The team is in the midst of a dreadful 4-14 stretch and the slump brought with it several rumors that Wren was on the hot seat. The Braves will also make changes to their international scouting and player development departments, Peter Gammons reports, though manager Fredi Gonzalez’s job appears to be safe according to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman (Twitter link).
Wren had been a member of the Braves front office since 2000, first serving as Schuerholz’s assistant GM and then taking over the general manager’s job following the 2007 season. While Wren obviously had a tough act to follow given Atlanta’s string of consecutive playoff appearances under Schuerholz, the Braves “only” reached the postseason three times during his seven seasons as general manager and never advanced further than the NLDS. The Braves were in playoff contention for much of this season before their September collapse sunk their chances and left the team in danger of only its third sub-.500 record in the last 24 years.
It was just this past winter that Wren received a contract extension and wide praise around the baseball world for locking up several of the Braves’ young stars (Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons, Julio Teheran, Craig Kimbrel and Jason Heyward) and then acting fast to sign Ervin Santana in Spring Training when Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen both went down to Tommy John surgeries.
What ultimately doomed the 2014 Braves, however, was a lack of hitting, which underlined Wren’s two biggest mistakes — signing B.J. Upton to a five-year, $75.25MM free agent deal and signing Dan Uggla to a five-year, $62MM extension after acquiring the second baseman in a trade from the Marlins. As ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick put it, these two moves alone probably cost Wren his job, since Uggla was released earlier this year and Upton has been a bust since coming to Atlanta.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement/USA Today Sports Images
Gonzalez next? (Edit – Heyman said that Gonzalez is likely safe)
I would think they will leave the managers fate in the hands of whomever they hire as the new GM
gotta be
Freddie Gonzalez is one of the most overrated managers in the game today.
You’re not overrated if nobody rates you high. Name me anyone (besides maybe the Braves) that thinks Fredi is a great manager.
They hired him based off of what he did in Florida. It’s my opinion is all.
They hired him because he used to coach under Bobby Cox if I’m not mistaken. I don’t think anyone would have hired him based on his time in Florida. Especially the way it ended there
I’m not defending Fredi in FLA, but his firing can somewhat be attributed to the itchy-trigger finger of notorious owner, Jeffrey Loria. Fredi had some run-ins with Hanley Ramirez, but who hasn’t?
Boy Loria has a long track record of not being liked.
IMO, it was more of his relationship with ATL, being a former coach and keeping up with Cox and the team. It was the most “comfortable” choice coming away from a legend in Cox, but I don’t think it was the best choice.
That’s not why they hired him at all, actually.
Other than the braves front office, who has over rated him? I’ve never read anything positive about him from fans, writers or former players….
Hopefully. Wren was bad but Gonzalez is worse. I have never seen a more apathetic manager. He doesn’t even seem like he cares that the team does terribly, whereas playing this poorly would get Bobby Cox fired up. I think BJ could have had a chance to be a decent player if he had a manager like Bobby breathing down his neck.
I agree definitely now, but it was the apparent awe of the Dodgers when playing them in LA earlier this year that caused me to lose my faith in him. Every interview with him sounded and looked as if he was managing the Indians from the “Major League” movie than a franchise with a winning tradition.
Joe Maddon never breathed down Upton’s neck in TB and got production. For the record I am in no way saying BJ would have been productive if he had stayed in TB. I realize my eye test is not scientific evidence but that last year, BJ seemed like a car that was still running but held together by duct tape and bandaids (i.e. warning signs).
Back to your point – you may be right as Maddon let Longo be the heavy and shove him around in the dugout after not hustling. Maddon also had Upton’s replacement stare at him from LF everyday.
And hopefully next week Fredi is gone. Obviously will wait the week to make anything official.
This dudes fate was sealed as soon as he inked BJ Upton
This guys fate was sealed when he signed BJ Upton
Should of been gone back when he signed Lowe and kawakami
Everyone was very vocal about nor touching Upton lol 3 seasons he’s done nothing but decline in every stat imaginable yet he took the plunge idk why buy he did
If the Braves retain Fredi Gonzalez, I will no longer be a Braves fan. It would be inexcusable for them to start 2015 with him as their manager. Unacceptable.
You’re going to disown the team if they retain him? Dude…there’s other fan bases out there that have it worse than the Braves and still remain fans. If you’ll quit on the team that easily don’t even jump back on the bandwagon when they right the ship.
It doesn’t fall solely on wren here he’s taking all the blame but it’s not just him there’s 9 guys that head out there every game and all chock on apples the same as the next I’m happy when Heyward leaves and gets under a compitant hitting coach he’ll really become dangerous and in a few years when kimbrel leaves via free agency he can truly become a legand
So what you’re saying is you’re not much of a fan in the first place. Big loss.
No, that’s what you’re saying. I guess you haven’t watched the games over the last month. Fredi. has. to. go. That’s pretty easy to understand, right?
Brian Cashman is going to have plenty of options
I’m wondering if the Yankees go after Wren if Cashman goes.
Rumor is that Cash will be offered an extension, but I hope thats not true. Time to freshen things up a bit, no playoffs for 2 years and Cash has been GM for over a decade
Agreed when A Rod opted out of his Texas Rangers deal when he was with the Yankees, the Yankees could have gotten Miguel Cabrera for Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Robbie Cano.
“the Yankees could have gotten Miguel Cabrera for Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Robbie Cano”
Not a clue where you heard that. Unless you’re thinking of the Johan Santana trade rumors (and Cano’s name was not mentioned in them).
Also, Cashman did not re-sign A-Rod after the opt out. I don’t know why people put the blame on A-Rod on Cashman. That’s all on Hank and/or Hal.
Yea my mistake
that was in fantasy baseball
They need to work on the farm system.
Hes wrong, the rumor in 07 was after A-Rod opted out the Yankees were interested in Miggy, the Marlins wanted Joba, Hughes and Ian Kennedy. At the time, Joba and Hughes were some of the best prospects in baseball.
Well, without A-Rod, Joba or Hughes, the Yankees probably don’t win the 09 WS, and Miggy has not won a WS since 03. Just saying.
Most likely, Hughes and A-Rod were key in that run
I wouldn’t mind a change, but it is extremely hard to judge the job Cashman has done. The ownership really opens their pockets, but how many of these moves are really ownership telling him what to do. That wouldn’t change regardless of who the GM is.
Exactly, which is why I tend to defend Cash at times. If I remember correctly, he wasn’t on board with that massive A-Rod contract in 07
Nope, he wasn’t.
He wasn’t on board with Rafael Sorianio look at the job that Sorianio did replacing Mo that year due to injury.
That was in his 2nd season with the Yankees. His first season he didn’t do so well.
The Yanks got to work on the farm system. You don’t see many 20-28 year old’s hitting the market anytime soon.
Yankees farm system has improved heavily this season. Injuries and weak seasons last year caused it to make a huge drop.
Don’t be surprised if it’s ranked somewhere from 10-15 next year.
The Mets could have a scary rotation next year.
Okay, but that’s not relevant to the conversation.
And the Cubs could have a scary lineup.
Wouldn’t be surprised if he took a kevin towers like role with the team.
Hand cashman $200mm to build a team and you will get a 2nd or 3rd place team. Yankees farm system isn’t that good either.
Yup i mean he’s been the GM for two years and both years they missed the playoffs.
The man’s fate was sealed when he signed BJ Upton.
Why is everyone saying the same thing about BJ Upton? Lol.
Probably because it was an awful deal at the time. Many people here defended the deal though, but it was bad.
Don’t know why, Upton is the outfield version of Stephen Drew
That bro’s future was toast when he hired BJ Upton.
Give the Braves credit for not wasting time and trying to regroup. Unlike the Phillies who seem intent on bringing back Amaro even though he’s done a horrific job the past several years
The guys fate was definitely sealed when he signed BJ Upton
Not just signing him but for 5 yrs.
I’m hoping Fredi is the next to be gone. I don’t agree with the decision to fire Wren, but he does have a questionable track record with free agent signings. His trades and waiver claims have been very solid for the Braves… I kinda feel like Schuerholz doesn’t agree with his philosophy and knowing some of the moves he made, I hope they go with someone more progressive, but I’m guessing he’ll want someone more “old school” which I’m not looking forward to seeing… Either way, Wren did a great job given the circumstances.
I agree that he had some impressive things he did, but how could “great job” be used to describe someone whose highest free agent signings were: BJ Upton, Derek Lowe, Dan Uggla (trade/extension), Kenshin Kawakami? All have or are turning out terribly.
They may let Fredi stay on board for another year, but under no circumstances should Walker or Fletcher’s contracts be renewed as hitting coach.
How do they fire Wren and the Phillies still have RAJ? smh
I’m sure if the Braves president John Schuerholz was the president of the Phillies, then RAJ would be out of a job a long time ago.
How does Terry Collins still have a job.
You can’t blow $200-250 million on questionable free agent signings and expect to keep your job, especially on a team with a pretty fixed payroll like this one. Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami, Dan Uggla, BJ Upton not to mention the Glavine debacle, letting Smoltz walk to Boston, Hudson to SF, and McDowell almost to Philly before Schuerholz stepped in. The only reason he made it past last year was because the Braves made it to the postseason.
Agreed. You said it best
He did not “blow” $200MM. I don’t want to defend him too much, but we did get some production out of Lowe and Uggla. Not their contract’s worth, but very much unlike Kawakami/Upton (so far). Plus, you’re not factoring in some of the cost-cutting moves he made while here by finding reclamation projects and turning them into gold. For a time, it seemed like we could pick up anyone, put them on the mound, and they’d give us a quality start (credit also goes to McDowell for this). But yes, letting that many get away has been tough.
What production from Lowe and Uggla justified their deals? He blew both contacts and B.J. Upton and given the team’s financial constraints, that prevented them from being more legitimate WS contenders.
He didn’t say the deals were justified, just that the Braves did get SOME production from them. As bad as he was at the end, Uggla was still generated 2.6 WAR in parts of four seasons, while Lowe put up 1.8 WAR across three years.
By comparison, BJ Upton has managed an atrocious -2.4 WAR in just two seasons. Unlike Lowe and Uggla, he’s never been anything but awful in a Braves uniform. Kawakami was also a negative value player in his time, but negligibly so relative to Upton, compiling -0.2 WAR in two seasons.
The 2.6 WAR spread over 4 years and 1.8 over three are fireable offenses. That’s tens of millions tied up in players who aren’t helping the team get to the World Series.
Yes, Upton is worse. So what? The point still stands that Wren blew hundreds of millions on stinky deals.
Uggla finished with 27 HR or more the first 6 years of his career. No other 2B (ever) had done that. Lowe was a force to be reckoned with in the postseason — though they essential had to settle for Lowe when Burnett spurned their offer for NYY.
I meant since then, though in at least Lowe’s case there were plenty of red flags.
True. Only the Yankee GM can continuously blow 200-250M and keep his job by spending more money on top of the poorly spent money.
Only reason he keeps his job is because a lot of those terrible deals are really the work of the Steinbrenner boys, and I guess they’re at least fair enough not to fire Cashman for the bad deals they ordered him to make. I don’t think the Braves ownership told Wren to go out and get B.J. Upton, regardless of the cost.
Wren did a great job other than his FA signings. Some relatively cheap trades and waiver claims really paid off for us. Lowe, Uggla, and Upton all tanked after putting on a Braves uni, and that’s what’s this is all about.
Top draft picks under his watch have been bad — and he’s given up quite a few with the (bad) FA signings (Ervin Santana, this year). One of the first things he did as GM was trade Teixeira away to LAA (Marek, Kotchman), and in turn, the 2 draft picks we would have gotten when Teixeira would have inevitably signed with NYY. Can’t blame him , but I’m illustrating the lack of importance in the draft (esp high picks), which really could have helped our future knowing how great our scouts/development is.
I am content with what Sandy Alderson has done. Building up the farm system. Just hope the Wilpons can spend money.
They won’t.
Wren’s best replacement from within the organization would be John Coppolella, assistant GM. It’s interesting he was not named interim GM though, in Wren’s absence, as Hart took on that role.
It’s better this way. He may end up the GM, but it’s less awkward to let somebody else be the GM for the last few games rather than naming him interim and picking somebody else later on — less awkward both for him and a potential new GM who has to spend his days knowing his replacement could be a couple doors down in the office.
And yet Dan O’Dowd still has a job…
Good. Consistently subpar FA returns ruin all but a few teams. Wren was terrible at a key part of his job and that is why he no longer has one.
It’s fire sale time. There’s a solid core: Freeman, Simmons, Bethancourt, Heyward, Teheran, Wood, Hale, much of the ‘pen. I’d trade Gattis, Kimbrel, Johnson, both Uptons (you may have to eat BJ’s contract) and look for young, controllable regulars. Approach Heyward about an extension. Sign Medlen to a low-base, incentive-heavy deal (extra $$ for making the roster, pitching xx innings, making xx starts, etc.). See if Harang would take another one year contract. They may have to write off 2015, but a smart, aggressive offseason could put them in good shape when they move to Cobb County. Oh yes, and other than McDowell, replace the coaching staff. And the scouting organization.
This had to happen. Wren’s bad luck with free agent signings (Lowe, Kawakami, B. Upton) and some bad trades (Teixiera, Escobar, Uggla) sealed it. To his credit, the Justin Upton trade has worked well for the team, even if the jury is still out on the Chris Johnson extension.
The Braves could be sitting pretty if our free agent signings and other trades worked out. But now with the team still paying Uggla and Upton next season, we’re extremely limited in how we can improve.
He never traded for teix.
He traded Tex to LAA for essentially nothing and we missed out on the draft pick compensation for his departure.
It’s not like those picks would have gotten us anything…I mean, who did LAA pick up with those picks anyway (cough…Mike Trout…cough).
It’s not clear that Atlanta would have even drafted Trout had they kept the pick and the player had been available to them.
If teams knew that Mike Trout would become Mike Trout, he would have went 1:1.
Can’t fault him for Escobar. He was trying to preserve the clubhouse, which was commendable, IMO. Teixeira (to ATL) was Schuerholz, (from ATL to LAA) was him. Uggla trade was actually good for ATL. Infante had another year left on his contract and we gave us Mike Dunn. Not that much for who we thought we were getting.
BJ has been a bust SINCE coming to Atlanta? I always thought BJ Upton a bust since his sophomore season. The fact that he got a 5 year deal for more than 10MM a year was crazy to me. I guess Wren thought being reunited with his brother was worth the gamble…
Frank did a lot better than people give him credit for. Rarely did he make a bad trade and those waiver pickups, wow! Of course the signings have hurt. Kawakami is why it’s better to just stay away for Asian starting pitchers. Most saw the Lowe deal not being that great from the get-go, but he wasn’t atrocious (his FIP suggests he was better than his ERA indicated). You can say what you want about the Uggla and BUpton deals, but I don’t think anyone can say they saw the drop off of production like what transpired.
What Braves fans will miss most is Wren’s unwavering approach to trading prospects. I highly respected him on sticking to his guns and not gutting the system just to acquire a need.
In the end, getting rid of Frank won’t solve the problem. If Frank being gone is what they want, then so be it. But more people need to go.
Kawakami’s failures say more about the Braves’ international scouting than Asian pitchers as a whole.
Signing BJ Upton and Uggla alone should be enough to get any GM fired. And that’s not 2nd guessing. I knew at the time those were bad contracts, uncharacteristic of Atlanta. And if I knew it, a Major League GM should know it.
Great news. Now Copolella needs to be hired so he can fire Fredi!
The man’s fate was sealed when he proffered a monetary contract in exchange for services to be rendered to BJ Upton and it was accepted.
You would find it very difficult to find a serious Braves fan that does not want to see Gonzalez fired.If he remains there will be fan rebellion!
Already have signs made up for their trip to NYC.
The Braves could always hire Kevin Towers. Maybe Kirk Gibson can be the manager.
I’m sure he’d love to coach Justin Upton again…
John Schuerholz just defined “The Braves Way” — interesting timing: “It’s a special way of identifying young players who you want to become part of your organization with great comfort and expectation that when they put on a Braves uniform, they’ll be taught well, instructed well. Their makeup and their character will allow them to turn into championship-caliber players. They’ll fill the pipeline of this organization with highly-capable, high-character, young, winning men who help you win many many championships on a major league level, year after year after year.”
I keep hearing the whispers of “if you build it…” behind that for some reason.
I think Frank Wren is a very good GM and that this is a mistake. Yes, I think we can all agree on the Upton/Uggla/Lowe mistakes. But Wren is also the guy who plucked Varvaro and Carpenter off waivers. He turned Tommy Hanson into Jordan Walden. He absolutely stole Justin Upton. Eric O’Flaherty. Aaron Harang. The list goes on and on. He’s one of the best at turning nothing into something.
How many times do the Braves need to collapse in September before people admit that the real problem is Fredi Gonzalez?
C’mon…how can you really feel like salvaging the trash heap can really make up for the wasted millions he spent on high-priced FA? O’Flaherty,, Harang, Ben Sheets, Walden is incredibly overrated (either hurt or inconsistent, not a very reliable setup man, IMO) cannot make up for the pieces we missed out on if we could have reallocated the funds given to Uggla, Upton, etc.
I don’t see why so many people give Wren so much credit for Harang’s success. He’s an every other year pitcher who’s currently in his up year. He didn’t fix him. This is who Harang is.
He ran off A number of GOOD baseball people from the organization in past couple of yrs, Especially the Scouting Director. He went away from drafting HIGH Ceiling athletes from HS.
Wren is very good at making low pressure, low cost moves. He just isn’t good at the high exepnse, home run moves. Atlanta isn’t a big market MLB team, so when the team does decide to empty their wallet, Wren hasn’t delivered. That’s a huge chink in his armor.
As evidence by the Uggla and B.Upton contracts, the Braves were fully ready to win now. Wren blew it though and now we’re kind of in a limbo: We want to win, but we don’t have the money to make large improvements.
4-14 is a brutal stretch for Braves fans to have to watch. I’m a Mets fan so you can trust me, I know what I’m talking about.
It hurts worse for Braves fans since they actually had a chance at the postseason. Mets fans are conditioned to lose.
How does a news article about the Braves turn into a discussion of the Yankees?
Frank Wren made some very good moves, and some very bad moves. Because the team isn’t winning, those bad moves are what matters.
I still do not understand what is wrong with BJ Upton. He was ok in Tampa but wow, what a fail.
Uptown isn’t seeing the plate very well. Takes too many called third strikes. The sb are somewhat there but bj isn’t getting on base much for that to count.
I thought his string of extensions recently were very good.
Bj upton and Dan uggla hurt him, but he wasn’t the worst Gm in baseball or anything.
I for one would like to see the braves make some moves on the coaching staff.like julio franco for hitting coach and greg maddux pitching coach
The braves need to resign harang if they can get him at the right price.he stated that he would like to return next season. He was a good sign at 2 mil.he will be more in the 5-8 mil next season.