Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez assigned an individual ring tone on his iPhone this winter for John Coppolella, so he’d know immediately when the team’s assistant general manager was calling with news of a trade or signing.
“I’d hear that ring I’d go, ‘Oh (expletive),’” Gonzalez said, smiling. “And it’d be anywhere from 10 at night to 6 in the morning, call or a text. And I go, do you ever sleep? But it’s been nice to be able to be involved in a lot of the things. You knew the direction they were going.”
The Braves’ frenzied offseason has featured 43 free-agent signings (nine to major league contracts) and nine trades, including deals that brought in 11 of the top 20 Braves prospects in Baseball America’s updated rankings.
Eight of those 11 new prospects, as well as starting pitcher Shelby Miller, came in three trades for three of the Braves’ top hitters: Justin Upton, Evan Gattis and Jason Heyward.
The Braves went with a youth movement aimed toward the future and sustained success. But they didn’t want to sacrifice the next season or two. So president of baseball operations John Hart added influential veterans, led by outfielders Nick Markakis and Jonny Gomes, catcher A.J. Pierzynski and reliever Jason Grilli.
There are some leaders and outspoken personalities among them — qualities the Braves lacked in 2014. Gonzalez joked Thursday that he might have to put Gomes’ and Pierzynski’s lockers in the coaches’ room, so he can keep an eye on them.
Some observers are projecting 90 or more losses for the Braves, but Gonzalez thinks they can surprise. He said the goal is the same as always: a postseason berth.
“I like our club,” he said. “I like our (starting) pitching. I like our back end of the bullpen with some of those veteran guys. We went out and got some contact hitters, guys who are going to put the ball in play. There were times (in 2014) where we were like, ‘somebody put the ball in play and we get a run.’
“We’ve got some mix-and-matches that we can do. (Veteran Alberto) Callaspo, we can do some stuff there with him at second base. Against a tough right-hander maybe run him in there at third base. You’ve got Jonny Gomes, who wears out left-handed pitching.”
Despite joking about dreading Coppolella’s calls, Gonzalez said none of the moves surprised him. He was braced for wholesale changes after last season.
“When we sat here shortly after the season ended,” Gonzalez said, “all the Johns — John Hart, John Coppolella, (president) John Schuerholz — all sat there and said there’s three ways we can go with this: We could try to patch together this team. We could blow it up completely. Or we could move some pieces and keep the team competitive and rebuild the farm system, and I think that’s what they’ve done. I think we’ve accomplished that.”
The Braves won 17 of their first 24 games last season and held sole possession of first place at 53-43 on July 18. But pitching could carry them only so far. They were 26-40 the rest of the way, totaling 205 runs and 41 homers in 66 games to finish in a second-place tie with the Mets in the NL East, a figurative mile (17 games) behind Washington.
They fired general manager Frank Wren and assistant GM Bruce Manno on Sept. 22. Gonzalez kept his job, although some of his coaches didn’t. Bo Porter was hired to replace fired third-base coach Doug Dascenzo, and Kevin Seitzer was hired to replace hitting coach Greg Walker, who stepped down.
Hart and Coppolella made numerous changes in the scouting and player-development staffs, then dove into a radical roster makeover the likes of which the Braves had not seen in decades. The Braves had two standouts — Upton and Heyward — a year from free agency and didn’t want to see either leave after 2014 with only a compensatory draft pick to show for it.
Gonzalez was involved, or kept abreast, of personnel moves more than in the past. And there were a lot of them. A week rarely passed without a trade or free-agent signing.
“The nice thing was, we went from, what, 27th in the farm system (rankings) to sixth in two months without even having a draft,” Gonzalez said. “That’s one hell of a job that Coppy and his people did to rebuild the farm system.”
