Disappointment and fallout from the Braves’ 7-20 start, coupled with rampant rumors that manager Fredi Gonzalez will be fired, has folks a bit on edge in the team offices at Turner Field.
During an interview Friday morning, Braves general manager John Coppolella would not discuss the likelihood of Gonzalez being fired or say how soon the team needed to turn things around to save the manager’s job or if that was even possible, and reiterated his policy of not responding to rumors. “Status quo,” he said of the manager.
“My hope is that we win 20 games in a row, Fredi wins manager of the year, and this is something that we laugh about years from now,” Coppolella said. “Whether or not that ends up happening, we’ll see. But we’re trying to win every night. Fredi and his coaching staff is, too. We want to win.”
Gonzalez said earlier this week he wanted to either get a vote of confidence that he’ll last the remainder of the season, have the club pick up a 2017 option on his contract, or fire him. Coppolella reiterated Friday that while he cares a lot about Gonzalez, any decision on his future would be made when the GM is ready.
“I’m not into vote of confidence for anybody,” Coppolella said. “Whether it’s Fredi, whether it’s our scouting director, our director of player development, anybody. Every day is a vote of confidence. Every day that he fills out that lineup card and leads that clubhouse, it’s a vote of confidence.
“I don’t want to name names, but a GM last year gave his manager a vote of confidence and fired him 72 hours later. So that’s not the way we’re going to operate here. You won’t hear a vote of confidence, but you also won’t hear us say anything negative about Fredi, either.”
If Gonzalez were to be fired, it’s believed the Braves would name an interim manager from within the coaching staff – Eddie Perez, Terry Pendleton or Bo Porter – and then do thorough search for a long-term replacement with that interim manager among the candidates. Coppolella declined to address those possibilities.
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