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 with the AJC on 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.”
Coppolella didn’t say which managerial firing he was referencing, but it seemed likely it was Padres GM A.J. Preller firing Bud Black in June. Coincidentally, Black is rumored to be candidate for the Braves’ managerial job if it becomes open. But that seems like put-the-dots-together speculation, since Black is available and has connections to Braves president John Schuerholz from years in Kansas City, and to Braves president of baseball operations John Hart from years in Cleveland.
A more-likely scenario if Gonzalez were to be fired could be an interim manager named from within the coaching staff — Eddie Perez, Terry Pendleton or Bo Porter — and then a thorough search for a long-term replacement with that interim manager becoming a candidate for the permanent job.
The Braves’ majors-worst start not only has stoked speculation about an imminent Gonzalez firing, it’s also raised the ire of many fans who point to comments made by Coppolella, Hart and Schuerholz during the offseason, when team officials said there would be no repeat of last year’s 95-loss season and second-half debacle. They said the Braves would be better.
Coppolella acknowledged there have been trying circumstances, including injuries and a schedule rated the toughest in baseball to date in terms of opponents’ winning percentage.
“We understand that Fredi hasn’t had his full lineup,” he said. We’re just getting the starting rotation lined up. We get Ender Inciarte back (from the disabled list) tomorrow. (Gonzalez) hasn’t had a full lineup. We’re also playing against the toughest schedule in all of baseball, by the numbers.”
At the same time, Coppolella said, he didn’t want to make excuses and reiterated that the Braves’ long-range plan is moving forward as expected, despite the early-season struggles of the big-league team.
“We said from the start we expected to be better this year, and we do,” he said. “But you didn’t hear us say we expected to win 100 games, or we expected to go to the World Series. And for all the pundits around baseball — and there’s many these days — I don’t see anybody who picked us to do anything of consequence.
“What did we say was important to us? Improving this year and giving opportunities to young players as we continue to try to build a championship club around young, (high) upside players. What have we done? We brought up Aaron Blair, Mike Foltynewicz and Mallex Smith. We moved up (top prospects) Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies. Everything that we said we would do, we’ve done.
“Have there been players who struggled? Yeah, there were some that struggled early, there are some still struggling. Erick Aybar is a much better player than he’s showing. But if you want to lay that at the feet of anybody, lay it at my feet. Because at the end of the day, I made that trade. We expect Erick Aybar will get better.”
When there were increasing rumors during the offseason that the Braves would trade first baseman Freddie Freeman, as they traded away so many other established players, Coppolella said several times that they weren’t trading him and finally said he’d give his right arm before they traded Freeman.
There was no similar pledge regarding the manager.
“For the record, I don’t want to back myself or the Braves organization into a corner,” Coppolella said. “There’s only so many limbs that I have on my body. I’m not going to promise not to do anything by a certain day or time. We’re always talking, always evaluating, and Fredi’s a big part of that process. So, there’s no timetable, it’s not this weekend, it’s not next month, it’s not next year. It’s constantly evolving and constantly unfolding, and something we will always evaluate.
“But we’re looking to give everybody in that clubhouse every opportunity to turn things around.”
