Braves president John Schuerholz read a Yahoo Sports report that said interim general manager John Hart has turned down the Braves’ offer to take the job full-time, prompting the team to focus on assistant GM John Coppolella and Royals GM Dayton Moore as its primary targets for the position.
“At best the article was not accurate with either the facts or the assumptions,” Schuerholz said in an email to the AJC on Wednesday in response to a question about the report, which cited unnamed sources.
Schuerholz did not elaborate, and Hart has not commented publicly recently about the Braves’ GM search being conducted by the two Johns and Hall of Fame former Braves manager Bobby Cox.
When the Braves made a rash of significant personnel moves soon after the season – announcing manager Fredi Gonzalez would return, hiring top scouts Roy Clark away from the Dodgers and Gordon Blakeley from the Yankees to serve as special assistants to the GM, making Brian Bridges the new scouting director – there was increased speculation that the Braves were operating under the knowledge that the next GM would be Hart, Coppolella or Moore.
The reasoning behind that speculation: Hart or Coppolella, 36, could’ve approved of each decision; and Moore, 47, a former Braves assistant GM, either worked with or was familiar enough with all of those involved in the personnel decisions to presumably be comfortable with the moves, or perhaps even approved of them.
Moore’s Royals had a 3-0 lead over Baltimore in the American League Championship Series before Wednesday, on the cusp of Kansas City’s first trip to the World Series since 1985, which was also its last postseason appearance. A Kansas native, he’s served as Royals GM since 2006 and has two years left on his contract, with a solid young team and a minor league system that’s stocked with more talent than the Braves’ system.
Many observers have wondered publicly why he’d consider returning to Atlanta. Moore has declined any comment about the Braves GM position since it became open.
Hart, 66, is a former Indians and Rangers general manager hired as a senior adviser by the Braves in November 2013. In 10 years as Cleveland GM (1991-2001), he oversaw their transition from 105-loss team to six division titles and two American League pennants.
Hart also serves a studio analyst for MLB Network, although he has shelved those duties while serving as Braves interim GM since the team fired Frank Wren on Sept. 22.
At news conference after Wren was fired, Schuerholz made it clear that he would like Hart to take over the permanent GM. Hart indicated he was more comfortable in an advisory role than returning to the grind of full-time GM duties.
When asked directly that day whether he was a candidate, Hart demurred, and Schuerholz said, “We are most blessed to have someone of his caliber and his experience and his excellence as a part of our organization. He’s one of the best general managers in the game over the past 15, 20 years. Tough to compete against always. He didn’t say that with his answer, but it’s not a completely closed or open door is what he meant to say.”
Schuerholz smiled after saying that, and so did Hart, seated next to him at the news conference. Afterward, in a separate interview with a few writers, Hart said of being a GM candidate: “I’ve certainly had some opportunities here over the last X number of years, to jump back in it…. This one’s a little tougher (to not consider) because of John and my relationship with John, the fact that I’m from the South, I live in Orlando, spring training’s right in my backyard. But I think overall — and John and I have talked about this – I’m more comfortable being a part of this transition team, going out there and really combing what I think is a chance to be a really good group of potential candidates.”
