Alex Anthopoulos couldn’t celebrate the Braves’ World Series triumph with the rest of the organization last night, as the president of baseball operations had to watch from home after testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. The diagnosis left Anthopoulos “surprised,” as he told Scott Miller of The New York Times, but fortunately, “I’m fully vaxxed, I don’t have any symptoms, I feel great….My family is fine.” To avoid any distractions for the team, Anthopoulos told only manager Brian Snitker and team chairman Terry McGuirk about his diagnosis.
As unusual as the situation was, Anthopoulos got to celebrate with his wife and children, adding to the special moment. The Braves have reached the postseason in each of Anthopoulos’ four seasons at the helm of the front office, and the 44-year-old has now captured his first championship after 10 total years as a general manager (counting his six years with the Blue Jays from 2010-15).
More from the NL East….
- Yankees assistant general manager Jean Afterman declined a request from the Mets to interview about their front office vacancy last week, SNY’s Andy Martino reports (Twitter link). Afterman has worked with the Yankees in the AGM role since 2001, and she received an additional promotion to senior VP in 2012.
- The Nationals officially announced their 2022 coaching staff, including three previously-reported new hires (first base coach Eric Young Jr., third base coach Gary DiSarcina, hitting coach Darnell Coles) and one more newcomer in bullpen coach Ricky Bones. Former bullpen coach Henry Blanco is staying on the Nats’ staff in the new role of catching/strategy coach. This is Bones’ second time working with Washington’s organization, as he previously served as a pitching coach for the Class-A advanced team back in 2005. Bones has been the Mets’ bullpen coach from 2012-21, with a brief stint as a minor league pitching coach in 2019.
The Mets, to all of the people who’ve said they aren’t interested:
“Will the last one out please turn off the lights?”
Afterman sounds like the name of some super hero that’s from 20 seconds in the future or something.
Or from 20 seconds in the past, always popping up and saying, “What did I just miss?”
Congrats to AA heard Canadian baseball hall of fame has already contacted him. Guessing he gets in like now
AA and the joey bats OF pays off.
ot…..
Da Da Da Ding….. Da Da Ding……
Oakland A’s Receptionist- Hello Oakland A’s Front Office How can I direct your call?
HKIII- Mr. Beane please
Rep-May I ask who’s calling
HKIII- That would would be Hank Kimble the 3rd Ma’am
Rep- And who do you represent?,Mr Beane is very busy man.
HKIII- I’m the GM of the New York Mets
Rep- Don’t you have Mr. Beane’s Cell Number?
HKIII-No Ma’am
Rep-Very well, Please hold.
Billy Beane-Hello
HKIII-Howdy Do Mr. Beane. My name is Hank Kimble newly appointed GM of The New York Mets
BB-For Cripe sakes they finally found someone to take the job. What happened Mr. Heaney wasn’t available? hahahaha
HKIII-WOW Wee You know Mr. Haney?My father spoke very highly of him. Well not very highly err well to be honest he was a bit of jerk. Well come to think of a complete *-hole Well anyways to answer your question, I was the head custodian/janitor here at Citifield and the job just fell into my lap. Well not really fell into my lap.,Come to think of it it was either me or Sam Drucker’s kid Kim Drucker or was it Tim?
Well anyways the reason I called the Word Series is over and it’s time to deal.
BB- Deal? have you had time to even go over our roster?
HKIII-Oooooh wee have I ever. I’m interested in your 3rd baseman Eric Chavez. That young man can hit a ball a country mile. Well not really a mile. more like over the fence!!
I haven’t seen arms on a guy like that since Guns-N- Roses rolled into Hooterville and that singer Axl Rose gave Eb a fore arm shiver for starting a mosh pit doing the song November Rain
BB- Eric Chavez? Lol, Mr. Kimble, Eric Chavez hasn’t been with us since the 2010 season.
HKIII- Man I to heck. I was prepare to offer you 2 pallets of Chairman Bathroom Tissue and a truck load of Tide Laundry Detergent.
BB-You listen to me Mr. Kimble. I don’t who you are or where you’re from. But I don’t deal any of my ballplayers for things I can buy in bulk at Costco. Nothing personal, but you need to tell your inept owner to hire a REAL Baseball man as his PBO or GM. Good Day Sir!!! Click!!
HKIII-Hello? Hello?? Awww Heck!!! My Blackberry’s battery is dead. Awww no wonder I was trying for Eric Chavez. They gave me a 2001 MLB GM Handbook.I thought it was a 2021.
okay
say no to drugs
He tried
Lmao
All that for nothing
I guess you had to be there.
You do know that most of the people have no idea what show you are referencing?
He’s referencing a show? Phew
Good on AA for following the rules and not just pulling a Turner.
How can you tell if someone is vaccinated?
You don’t have to, they’ll tell you
(vaxxed btw)
I identify as a non vax.
Hate crime to argue with that.
That might not work with a quarterback that hangs with Jake from Stat Farm.
Mets just struck out again LOL. Yankees Afterman declined plus Two defections in Ricky Bones and Gary DiSarcina to the rival Nats. Ouch
The dumbification of America is alive n well.
All you have to do is read posts from the Mets fans to figure that out.
Thanks Captain Obvious.
Bring back, Rosario and Soler. Acquire Reynolds from Pirates. Repeat!
Bring back, Rosario and Duvall and Soler for DH, Reynolds will cost a fortune for not that much better!!
The Pirates aren’t interested in trading one of the cornerstones they intend to build on. To convince them to part with Reynolds would be a price tag that just wouldn’t be worth it for the Braves..because they aren’t interested in trading one of the cornerstones they intend to build on.
The Braves have Acuna, dummy
And unfortunately Ozuna… need to figure out a way out of that. Keep Soler, Rosario & Duval. Outfield of Acuna,Rosario & Duval, mix in Waters or Pache when ready and put Soler at DH.
Just curious where you plan to play Acuna when he is healthy. Plus you didn’t mention Freddie
Bring back, Rosario and Soler. Acquire Reynolds from Pirates.
I see what you did there
Sandy is getting so desperate he called Billy and asked for Peter Brand…
AA is so underrated. Might be the 3rd best exec after Friedman and Zaidi
I agree. When you consider the fact he works with a payroll so much lower than teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Mets or Nationals it’s pretty crazy what he has been able to accomplish. GMs have to get the best bang for their buck and AA is making some of the richer teams who don’t do that look really bad right now. This championship was built and not bought. The team success is very sustainable and none of the players are on contracts that look like they are going to be bad in the future. I was wondering where he was last night. I thought maybe he was there but I just happened to miss him. It sucks he had to miss celebrating his first world championship with the team. It’s pretty cool he got to celebrate it with his family though. That’s definitely a great 2nd best option. And yes, kudos to AA for not making the organization look bad by pulling a Justin Turner and going to celebrate even though he knew he tested positive. I feel bad for the guy since he had to miss it but he played it like the consummate professional he is. That’s the best thing he could do for his organization. Nothing against Shapiro but I am surprised the Blue Jays let AA slip through their hands. He could have run that team for a very long time. I’m sure the Braves are happy Toronto didn’t do what it took to keep him around.
The braves need to give credit to John Hart who acquired a lot of the talent that propelled the braves to world series championship
Excellent point; Hart’s handprints are all over the current roster. But AA deserves a lot of credit for acting aggressively when the situation called for it. Back in April, I said both the AL East and NL East would be decided by the GMs; pretty much what happened.
Nevermind Hart allowed Coppy to be the fall guy claiming he didn’t know what his GM was doing while being allowed to leave (not fired) into a cushy studio MLB job as analyst, where he hasn’t worked in the game as an executive since. Hmm.
On the national ws broadcast, there was no mention of hart. Even if hart didn’t know what coppy was up to, accounting would follow the money trail. So let’s forget about him, a braves fan.
Still sour AA isn’t in Toronto, I’ll never give Shapiro and Aitkens any respect.
Honestly same and a piece of me will never fully embrace Shapiro for it
What exactly happened there? AA was running the team right? So then they hired Shapiro and Atkins to be his bosses or something so he left? He was doing well. Why did they feel the need to hire someone else to start telling him what to do? They had to know he wasn’t going to like that and that he had good market value at the time. It almost seems like a backhanded way of letting him know they didn’t care if he stuck around or not and they didn’t want him to be the one making final decisions anymore. I don’t get it. That guy pulled off the Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista trades for them. He got them 2 MVPs for very little in return. How do you just let someone like that go?
Technically AA resigned, Atkins was not in the mix.
As far as we know, Shapiro came in to replace Beeston and immediately took exception to AA’s aggressive trades the previous deadline. Apparently it was pretty contentious and AA moved on from there.
It’s a sad ending to a quality GM and beyond that the fact that he’s Canadian and worked his way up to from the mail room made it worse.
Don’t get me wrong he made some mistakes, but when you swing for the fences you strike out a few times.
Leave it to those lowly Mets to try and pry someone from our immaculate front office! Of course Jean declined not because it’s the Mutts calling but next year we’ll be hoisting up our 28th championship banner!!
LOL
Not surprising at all regarding Jean Afterman. She seems to have quite strong job security with the Yankees so she will likely not be inclined to consider moving on to another team, especially one that is so dysfunctional and prone to firing people.
Plus, she knows that Cashman’s time is running out and that Yankees GM role is going to open up sooner rather than later so she will probably get a chance to interview for that position.
I have interest in the Mets GM job. I don’t have experience per say, but I’ve done ok with my team in The Show. Not trying to brag but we’ve won 2 World Series titles in 3 seasons on medium difficulty
Surprised they haven’t asked about Tim naehring
At this point shouldn’t the Mets go with someone safe and clean house later? Wasnt Sabian’s name thrown out there?
“BREAKING: Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Yeti all exist, decline interviews with Mets”
So, what is the real story with the Mets? Surely, the fake news knows and is not telling…
Tucker Carlson is interviewing as we speak.
Bozo the clown just hired as new GM for the Mets!
And the 2022 Mets slogan will be: “Whoa, Nellie!!!”
He already owns the Mets, fortunately!
1st order of business, Lock up Freddie Freeman! No clue on the Ozuna situation, Acuna out until at least late May/June time frame at the earliest. AA got some work cut out for him. Zero projected outfielders to start 22 season. Don’t even mention Pache people.
Doesn’t Duvall have a mutual option that they may exercise for insurance (I’d imagine Duvall also interested, tho he could explore the market considering he was RBI champ)? Soler/Rosario are FA and they will look at cash in, as they should. Hope we can keep at least one in the fold.
I wasn’t a fan of AA in Toronto, but it feels like he’s developed more finesse in Atlanta. I absolutely loved the trades for the four replacements outfielders. That’s how you build a sustainable model. While teams like TO, the CWS, and the NYM were trading big pieces, for no real gain, AA traded very little, and picked some great fits.
Kudos to a guy I never really liked. But I can admit when I am wrong.
Interesting. I thought he was pretty good in Toronto given the situation and budget limitations.
What made you not like him?
His time in LAD really reshaped him, imho. He continues to draft/acquire via trades guy’s with high ceilings and low value. They’ve been linked to Rosario since MIN, Pederson he was with in LAD, Soler they’ve had their eyes on since CHC — and they’ll continue following certain guys, like many FOs, but just so happened to get them when they could. Interesting thing is that AA was interested in Joc, Duvall, Rosario in the offseason, all possibly in a platoon roles. All signed with teams Joc with CHC, Duvall with MIA, Rosario with CLE for a starting spot to boost their value (presumably), and came back into the fold – some of which to play a platoon role, though ultimately not when injuries happened, etc. (Soler out with Covid, making Joc a starter during NLDS/CS). Funny how it works out.
Cohen POBO
Alderson GM
Beltran, manager.
Even Beltran won’t take this job even if he is a SCUMBAG
Congrats, Alex. Unbelievable job by this GM,
Another turn down for the Muts 0-15 or 20
Love Alex; great Canadian! Read up on this guys background; so happy for him!
Mets fans, does this surprise anyone? This is almost as worse than being in Oakland, there was a saying there, “come to Oakland , but don’t unpack your bags.” Something rotten in Denmark!
Mets fan here. How is Oakland perceived there? Are they the lolmets of the west coast? It’s crazy to me how we can’t seem to right the ship. Cohen acts like a buffoon tweeting with fans on social media. No other owner would do that. Can’t understand why we can’t shake these idiots and just acquire a normal respectful credible FO staff. We’ve only had 60 years to do it!