BOCA RATON, Fla. – As executives from major league teams checked into the swank Boca Raton Resort & Club for this week's General Managers Meetings, the Braves' John Coppolella did so for the first time without "assistant" in his title. He's the man now, the general manager of one of the majors' most reputable franchises.
John Hart remains president of baseball operations and has final say on personnel and most other matters, and he’s here with Coppolella, the two meeting with other GMs and team executives as they did at last year’s meetings. The duo kept a frenetic pace in deal-making after taking over baseball operations about 13 months ago following GM Frank Wren’s firing.
The personnel-move pace slowed since late July, but baseball’s hot stove starts to heat up at the GM meetings, which began Monday and run through Thursday morning. Hart and Coppolella met with multiple agents of free agents during sessions Monday morning and afternoon.
“Our hope is to lay some groundwork for potential trades and free-agent signings with other teams and agents,” Coppolella said Monday. “We won’t rule out anything and will remain opportunistic, but we also want to be realistic in terms of our own expectations and strategy.”
Coppolella and Hart said after the season ended that the Braves’ priorities would be, in order: Building a strong bullpen, deciding whether they needed to add another proven starting pitcher, and finding a way to add some offense to a team that ranked last in the majors in runs and home runs.
Left field and catcher were viewed as the main positional needs entering the offseason, a situation that’s changed a bit with the subsequent decision to move Hector Olivera from third base to left field. So far in the Puerto Rican winter league, he’s played only left field.
Olivera played the middle infield in Cuba, but he’s bigger, stronger, and soon to be 31, and the Braves played him at third base after getting him from the Dodgers in a blockbuster July trade. He made his major league debut in early September and showed flashes of the offense the Braves think he’ll give them over the next five seasons.
“We feel he can play third base but we wanted to get a good look at him in the outfield,” said Hart, adding that the Braves at their staff meetings in early October agreed Olivera might have an easier time adjusting while learning left field instead of third base. The team’s glut of outfielders under contract didn’t deter them from making the Olivera move.
“The guy’s a good runner, he’s got good instincts,” Hart said, “and so we’ve had (outfield instructor) Bo Porter go down and spend a week with him in Puerto Rico, and we’ve got Seitz (hitting coach Kevin Seitzer) down there. The guy’s playing well. We’ve been encouraged by what we’ve seen in left field. But we haven’t abandoned third base.
“Yeah, I think we know that we’ve got some strength, we’ve got some numbers in the outfield. But this is about putting Olivera in the best position to where he can help us. We think that that bat has a chance to play and be a real bat that we can have for a period of time. What’s the best place for us to play him, where he’s going to have a chance to help us the most? Listen, it still might be third base. But we’ve been encouraged by what we’ve seen in left field.”
With Olivera likely in left field, the Braves will probably pursue a short-term third baseman. Adonis Garcia is the only major-league ready player they have at the position, and his defense was shaky during his 30-year-old rookie season.
“I think to John’s point, (Olivera) is here in a new country,” Coppolella said, “he’s learning a new city, he’s learning a new language, new teammates, new everything. The easier we can make it for him – we felt this was a way to possibly make it easier. We’re not going to close the door on third base. I mean, if we have a chance where we (have a surplus in the) outfield and we feel like he fits better at third base, it’s not like he’s set in left field. It’s just that we’re trying to keep as many options open to help our team get better.”
The Braves won’t say what their specific payroll target, but it’s believed they have about $25 million to $30 million to spend this winter, in terms of additional payroll for the 2016 season.
A trade or two sometimes is consummated at the GM meetings – the Braves traded for Dan Uggla at the 2010 meetings, also in Florida – but usually the November gathering is more of a starting point, a place for golf, drinks, and early discussions that lead to myriad trades and free-agent signings later in the winter.
Team executives will also discuss other matters such as salary arbitration during meetings with MLB executives.
Since he was promoted from assistant GM to the GM position on Oct. 1, Coppolella has made more than a dozen hires or promotions in baseball operations. Now he’ll begin to shape the roster, much as he did while working with Hart during a few frenzied months last fall and winter. Their working relationship hasn’t changed, but the title has, in Coppolella’s case.
Now it’ll be “Coppy”, as he’s known around baseball, who gets more of the credit – or criticism – for trades and signings.
“It’s exciting to be here for the Braves,” he said, “representing our organization and looking at potential way we can improve our club for 2016 and beyond. There’s no real personal gratification because everything we do is about returning the Braves to the level of success they’ve come to expect from this gold-standard franchise.”
