MIAMI – As news came in Friday about Ron Washington stepping down as manager of the last-place Rangers, four days after the rebuilding Astros fired Bo Porter, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was asked if this time of the year was stressful for people in his position because of job security or lack thereof.
“No – it is what it is,” said Gonzalez, 50, sitting in the visitor’s dugout at Marlins Park before the Braves took batting practice. “What are you going to do? Just do the job you’ve always done. I’ve learned, whenever it’s time for you to get fired or let go, they’ll find some reason. Hell, I got fired after we won a game. Next morning.”
Gonzalez was in his fourth season as a major league manager and fourth with the Marlins when he was fired on June 22, 2010. The Marlins were 276-279 in his 3 ½ seasons with the team, and went from fifth place and 71 wins in 2007 to third place with an 84-77 record in 2008 and second place with an 87-75 record in 2009.
“We were playing the Orioles, and I think we were two games under .500 at the time,” Gonzalez said. “I had gone to dinner with (general manager) Larry (Beinfest) the day before. We flew in, it was the off day or something, we had dinner at the the famous crab place in Baltimore, Obrycki’s. The next day we won the game. The next morning after that, I get a phone call and he says, ‘you’re gone.’ Ok.”
The Braves hired Gonzalez four months later to replace his mentor, Bobby Cox, who had announced a year earlier that he would retire as manager after the 2010 season.
Under Gonzalez, the Braves finished second in the National League East with a 89-73 record in 2011; second with a 94-68 mark and wild-card playoff berth in 2012, and won the division with a 96-66 record in 2013 before losing to the Dodgers in a division series.
They were in second place at 73-67 before Friday, seven games behind division leader Washington, and tied with Milwaukee for the second and final NL wild-card spot with 22 games to play.
