Braves officials said on Sept. 22, the day that general manager Frank Wren and two of his top assistants were fired, that they would evaluate all parts of the organization and particularly focus on scouting and player development.
They weren’t kidding.
Barely two weeks later, the Braves unveiled their revamped baseball operation departments Tuesday, officially announcing several hirings or promotions that already had been leaked, plus a few more new hires, staff promotions or reassignments.
As previously reported, the Braves added two of the most respected scouts and talent evaluators in the game in Roy Clark and Gordon Blakeley, both named as special assistants to the general manager, and promoted one of their top scouts, Brian Bridges, to scouting director. Bridges replaces Tony DeMacio, who has been offered another position in the organization.
The Braves hired Dave Trembley as director of player development and named Jonathan Schuerholz as assistant director of player development. Schuerholz, 34, is the son of team president and longtime former GM John Schuerholz. They also realigned their scouting department with several moves including reassigning Ronnie Richardson from director of minor league operations to major league scout.
They still haven’t named a permanent GM, but the frenzy of front-office personnel moves, in addition to announcing last week that Fredi Gonzalez would be back as manager, seems a strong indication that the Braves are going to stay in-house and either have interim GM John Hart remove the “interim” from his title or possibly have assistant GM John Coppolella move into the role.
