NOV. 13: The Braves have issued a press release confirming the hire of Anthopoulos as their new executive vice president and general manager. Anthopoulos signed a four-year contract and will report directly to Braves CEO Terry McGuirk, per the release.
“The past few months have been the toughest in our storied history,” said McGuirk in a statement. “We are excited to have Alex lead our baseball operations team and begin a bright, new chapter for our organization. We chose Alex because he is of the highest character and has a wealth of MLB leadership experience. He is one of the elite baseball executives in our industry and is the perfect person to lead us to a World Series.”
Notably, too, the McGuirk’s statement offers some clarity on Hart’s role. The veteran executive “will relinquish his active involvement in baseball operations and will move into the role of senior advisor to the Atlanta Braves, effective immediately,” per the announcement.
NOV. 12: The Braves will hire Alex Anthopoulos as their new general manager, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). The official announcement could come this week during the GM Meetings. Anthopoulos will be the team’s final decision-maker in baseball-related matters, with John Hart remaining as the team’s president of baseball operations for now but in more of a “counsel/figurehead” type of capacity.
It was less than six weeks ago that Atlanta’s front office was thrown into disarray with the shocking resignations of former GM John Coppolella and international scouting director Gordon Blakely due to accusations that the team had violated international signing rules. Major League Baseball is still conducting an investigation into the matter, which has now expanded to exploring possible misdeeds involving the signings of domestic amateurs in the draft. It isn’t yet known how or when the league will issue its punishments towards the Braves, though the ruling is expected to be severe, given the reported scope of the charges. Hart apparently won’t face any punishment from the league, though he has seemingly lost his previous role atop Atlanta’s baseball operations department. Hart’s contract expired after the season and it remains to be seen if he’ll continue in this apparently reduced role or if he could depart for another job elsewhere.
Royals GM Dayton Moore (who spent more than 11 years working in the Braves front office) was considered to be the team’s first choice for the job, though Royals owner David Glass denied the Braves permission to speak to his general manager, and it wasn’t clear how interested Moore actually was in a return to Atlanta. The Braves were clearly focused on adding an experienced GM to help lead the team through the uncertainty of the MLB investigation, as Nationals assistant GM Doug Harris was the only reported candidate who hadn’t previously run a Major League front office. Beyond Anthopoulos and Moore, other names under consideration included Jim Hendry, Ben Cherington, Dan O’Dowd, Josh Byrnes, and Dan Jennings.
Still just 40 years old, Anthopoulos brings a wealth of front office experience to Atlanta. The Montreal native spent almost a decade in scouting roles with the Expos and Blue Jays and then served as the Jays’ assistant GM before being named Toronto’s general manager in October 2009. Thought to be taking over a rebuilding team (his first major move was trading Roy Halladay to the Phillies), Anthopoulos shifted direction once Jose Bautista unexpectedly emerged as a top slugger in 2010, and his tenure was marked by bold and often surprising transactions.
Anthopoulos’ successes included the team-friendly extensions for Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, trading Vernon Wells’ seemingly immovable contract to the Angels, the acquisition of Josh Donaldson from the Athletics, and the twin blockbuster deals at the 2015 July non-waiver trade deadline that brought David Price and Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto. The 2015 team ended up as Anthopoulos’ crowning achievement, as the Jays ended a 22-year postseason drought by winning the AL East and then advancing to the ALCS.
It was just after that season, however, that Anthopoulos left the Jays’ GM job, finishing out his contract after rejecting a pair of extension offers. Mark Shapiro had been hired as the Blue Jays’ new team president and CEO midway through the 2015 season, and Anthopoulos had no interest continuing in what essentially would have been a lesser role in the team’s baseball ops department, with Shapiro now calling the shots. Anthopoulos has spent the last two seasons working as the Dodgers’ VP of baseball operations.
Anthopoulos will now again take the reins of a rebuilding team, though the Braves may also be somewhat close to respectability given the amount of proven (Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte, Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino) and on-the-cusp of a breakout (Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson) talent on the big league roster. The Braves also boast arguably the best farm system in baseball, including ready-to-debut outfielder Ronald Acuna and top prospect Kevin Maitan (though Maitan’s own signing as an international amateur has been scrutinized by MLB’s investigation).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Yes!
Well that was quick
That may be what she said, but in this case I’ll say it was both quick and effective
That’s also what she said
As a Jays fan I’m really happy for Alex. Excellent executive with the balls to do stuff. Can’t believe Jays are stuck with Shapiro. What a coincidence Indians started doing good once he left
“…Shapiro. What a a coincidence Indians started doing good once he left”
…which is evidence that he did a good job, but just wasn’t around to see the fruits of it.
Ur actually dumb. Shapiro built that Indians team. The majority of players in the current Indians team, including bringing Francona, was under Shapiro’s headship. Think before you write
Shapiro also made a lot of bad decisions while running the Tribe.
Name a GM with a 100 per cent record.
OK you asked:
I can think of only Joe McDonald for the 1990-1992 Detroit Tigers. He wasn’t a prolific trader but, his one trade of Jeff Robinson for Mickey Tettleton I put on my list of Tigers best trades. Although no one became a star, his draft picks had a high rate of seeing MLB action: Buddy Groom, Justin Thomson, Sean Bergman, Chris Gomez, Frank Catalanotto, Bobby Higginson and Mark Redman are the most noteworthy.
This is an awful take
“Can’t believe Jays are stuck with Shapiro. “”
Should be: “Can’t believe Jays fans are stuck with this thieving Rogers cable company doing to Jays fans what Fred Wilpon does to Mets fans”
Apples and Oranges. At least the Jays have a payroll that’s near the top tier in baseball. The Mets spend like a small market team.
It’s amazing how so many people don’t even realize that AA never stuck to his plans. He always said it was important to build a young core and build depth within an organization so that there would be a constant stream of talent. He didn’t do that. He traded young players for veterans and now the Jays are left with an aging core that’s regressing with a few young players to build around but not enough talent coming from the minors. AA knew his tenure was ending and traded the future for a couple of bright seasons. But of course all hail AA. And now that Shapiro and Atkins are trying to continue success with the veterans without sacrificing developing talent you want to say that Toronto is “stuck” with Shapiro!? Short sighted.
Disagree. Alex retooled his plan on the fly. 20 years without playoffs and he turned it around. As far as trading the future what a load of trash. Only a few players of ALL the minor leaguers he traded have made anything of themselves in the bigs and they are hurt a lot of the time[Hoffman, Thor, D’rnaud].
As far as Shapiro goes, his major league record with the Jays has been abymsal at best. Two positives in the Smoak signing and Morales signing but the rest of his moves are plain awful, even disgraceful: Bautista for 18m, Melvin Upton, Nick Taepsch, Casey Lawrence, Luke Maile, Chris Coghlan, Raffy lopez, Jaord Salttalamcia, Mat Latos, Neil Ramirez, Glenn Sparkman, Ty Kelly, Steve Pearce @ 6m, Jeff Beliveau, Jason Grilli resigning, Francisco Lirano, Jay Howell. Hardly any of these players belong in the big leagues when the Jays were playing them.
Just about all the signings you just mentioned were minor league deals. Grilli was fantastic when they traded for him made his option a no doubter. When he struggled he was gone. Liriano trade was fantastic for Jays he was solid in a playoff push then when they unloaded him they got one of their more promising players in the upper minors in Teoscar Hernandez. AA screwed the future he gutted the system twice the Jays current prediciment is on AA and the moves he made not on Shapiro. Shapiro has been trying to extend the window while keeping in mind the only way to build a legit sustained contender is to be able to feed the big league team from the minors. Has had to start that pretty much from scratch AA left it a mess.
Well said, JBS32. Toronto is a hockey town with most of the sports shows replete with puckheads who know little or nothing about baseball. AA remains a hero in their minds though there are others, myself included, who think AA was a low-level suit who wiggled his way to the GM spot and made a complete mess of things. Shapiro and company inherit a mess, notably the Tulo contract and the Martin contract. Yes, Donaldson was a steal. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Fact is AA left the Jays as the oldest and slowest team in MLB with several past-prime ballplayers enjoying unrealistic contracts. With the exception of Donaldson, cannot think of any player AA brought to Toronto who was not in the denouement of his career.
Is difficult to read some comments who dismiss Shapiro as ineffective in Toronto while arguing Cleveland was successful after he left. Nonsense. Shapiro and Atkins built that organization, both on the field and off, leaving town when the club had a decent balance sheet, a few prospects left, and a roster that should compete for a few more years, at least.
You are correct that AA gutted the organization not once, but twice. Shapiro and company had to make a difficult decision given the fact the club attracted the largest attendance in the AL East; moving for a complete re-build is hardly in the cards given the popularity of the club.
If anything, AA was opportunistic to get out of Dodge before his mismanagement was recognized for what it was . . . a stadium usher promoted because of his Montreal roots to once again prove the Peter Principle to be true.
Watch for AA to make some big, splashy moves to produce some short-term results while burdening the Braves and their new park with older players and expensive contracts.
I could easily name all the players AA brought to Toronto that he shouldn’t have and it would quickly out number your list, but hey, I can see you clearly think way too highly of him so I’ll just let you admire him from afar. But I will say, if you do the research, you’ll see that AA is not the savior he’s made out to be. As far as retooling on the fly, that’s all great and all but I’d rather he stick with his plan the way Houston did and have a great youn core for years to come rather than cashing in his chips for a couple of playoff years. But hey, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
Well said, bocknobby.
One problem with your argument. The young core AA traded away was practically useless or often hurt and can’t play. Schrewd dealing I would say. That savior young core would have got the Jays to the playoffs. Most of the young core that was traded away are not nor ever will be in the big leagues.
Braves fans, just don’ listen to all the negative B.S. that is spewed from the posts on here. Have an open mind about Alex. He doesn’t just trade players for the hell of it. If he does trade a prospect its because he can see they aren’t going to be as good a player as everyone else thinks. You are going to love him.
Amen Bullred. Alex is a top 10 GM and will do very well by the Braves and Brave’s fans. I wish he was back in Toronto.
Some of what you said is true and the rest is garbage. Alex did say that the prospects were for on the field and for trades. He was up front about that. Alex chose to do a full strip down and rebuild and was not given enough time to do it. It’s very difficult to rip apart a whole system and build it back up to win a crown in 6 years. He almost did it though. He did feel the noose tightening around his neck with Rogers screwing everything up so he traded the prospects that he had acquired that he felt he could get the best shot at winning in 2015. He is a smart GM and I am sure the Atlanta fans and media are not stupid enough to hang him after 5 years if he is making progress and getting to the playoffs like Toronto fans and media did.
If they can ditch Hart, this is the best possible scenario for them. And even if they can’t, the reports say Alex will have the final say so it’s still solid. If the penalties aren’t huge, this could be a lucky turn out from the whole Coppy debacle.
Liberty Media still owns the Braves so no, the problem is not gone.
Greg Maffei took home $391 million in 2012 alone. Three hundred ninety-one million USD in one year from Liberty Media.
How many years does it take for the Braves to spend $391 million on talent?
Greg Maffei is also in trouble for dodging taxes in Europe. Google him.
Was my first thought, not as detailed, but Liberty was my first.
The ownership has not been the problem. Wren spending poorly on underperforming free agents and bad extensions have hurt a mid-market team. We didn’t even go to the playoffs the year we had the highest-budget ever for the franchise. Until the team has minimized the damage done by bad contracts, we can’t continue saying that it’s the lack of spending that’s the problem.
AA wouldn’t take the job unless he was the final say on player personnel at all levels. That is why he turned down Shapiro for the GM job in Toronto because Shaprio wanted final say. Go Alex!
Not sure that is why AA left Toronto, jimmerlee. There are those of us here who are convinced he left town as soon as the opportunity presented itself, using the hiring of Shapiro as an excuse. After all, he had managed to build the oldest, slowest club in MLB, with his big-name signings players in the final years of their careers.
bocknobby, that is not the reason AA left the Jays. He is on record saying that Shapiro offered him a 5 yr deal, albeit way undermarket for a GM but he also said that he would not be the final say in baseball personnel, so he couldn’t accept the offer.
bocknobby , do you work for Fox News? Your grasp on reality is very fleeting. He got Donaldson before his MVP year. Yes three years later he is older. Thats how aging works.
Carries LA knowledge with him
Freidman better be watching this
Perhaps Friedman can hire one former GM to replace Anthopoulos, another former GM to follow how Anthopoulos may be using his knowledge of the Dodgers to help ATL, and maybe just one or two more since it’s been a while since the Dodgers added any new executives.
All joking aside, I am curious to see who replaces Kapler and if anyone of note takes over the VP, Operations role that AA is leaving.
“Carries LA knowledge with him”?? You’d better explain that. LA has a fat chequebook . . . not much knowledge involved. LA, like the Yankees and Sox, just flaunt spending rules and regulations, hire whatever fix they think they need, and watch the cash roll in. Baseball may be a business in the rest of the country but it is something else in New York, LA, and Boston.
in years past there was a FA prediction contest. is there one this year???
They have stated in a few chats….most likely not. They are evidently nightmares on their end.
Ahhh okay, thanks… I must have missed that somewhere…too bad, that was a lot of fun, even though I was only correct on about 1% of my predictions…
Good move by the Braves. As a Giants fan, I can’t say I’m happy about it, but I recognize the good hire. But I am happy for Anthopoulos; a really good guy that deserves it.
Why would a Giants fan care what the Braves do?
Because when other NL rivals do something good they’re going to be tougher to beat. In the past the Braves were a particularly difficult team for the Giants. I would rather see rivals make questionable hires. I wish the Dodgers had retained Mattingly and not hired Roberts, e.g. The Braves will be back sooner than later and be tough to beat once again.
Fantastic hire
We’re just glad he’s no longer in Toronto. Good luck! You’ll need it.
So happy for Alex. He did a tremendous job with the Jays and really deserves this. The players love him and so do the fans. He is a tireless, fearless and relentless worker that always makes the prudent move. He wins Executive of the Year and then is essentially forced out by the poorly timed hire of Shapiro by Rogers Communication. The Ninja is back. Braves are so lucky to have him.
Well said.
AMEN bullred. Good on Alex and the Braves.
We’re all glad you are so happy and optimistic. Am not sure why one earth you imagine he did “a tremendous job” with the Jays . . . he gutted the farm system twice, left the organization with the oldest, slowest players in MLB, hired big-name players in the denouement of their careers. Sure, Donaldson was a tremendous steal but you’d be hard-pressed to find any other hire that is going to have a decent ranking in 2018.
As for Exec of the year, that good-ol’-boys club had to recognize the ballpark usher who elevated to the GM’s office . . . living the dream.
As I say, we are all so very happy you are happy to have him. Good luck with that.
Bocknobby, trolling (sour grapes) looks so unbecoming on you.
I like it. Braves are lucky to have him.
Say goodbye to your farm system. Alex will trade away almost all your top prospects. He did it with the Jays & he’ll likely do it again
He traded out 20 to 25 prospects and none of them have become anything of consequence other than Noah Syndergaard. But Alex got back MVP’s , batting title winners and Cy Young winners. He knew the chance of these prospects becoming superstars was low so take the superstar now.
Players AA drafted then traded away: Thor, D’Arnaud, S. Dyson, F. Barreto, J. Hoffman, M. Castro, J. Musgrove, A. DeSclafani, D. Norris, K. Graveman, S. Nolin, M. Boyd.
Injuries have plagued a few of them, but those are the notables. I’d like Barreto back the most. And Thor of course.
Don’t forget, if Paul Beaston wasn’t leaving AA would not have made a lot of those trades in 2015. So I don’t really call his tenure in Toronto very good. Look at his record before 2015, it wasn’t very good, and that was AFTER the Thor trade for Dickey.
They don’t make the playoffs in 2015 or 2016 without making those moves. You’d rather have Barretto than the last 3 years of Donaldson? He won the MVP for the Jays….
Thor, I understand but Barreto? You’d rather have Barreto who is still unproven then Donaldson?!?
It’s amazing that two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different but it happens. What was it that you think was bad as all I see was good.
You mean like how he graduated Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna, Pillar, etc.?
He traded a lot of prospects, there’s no debate there, but he kept a lot of them too.
Lucky Lucky Braves fans. Toronto should’ve never ran him out of town IMO. They were just starting to turn the corner.
AA vs Mark Shapiro, I’d rather have AA.
I think any Blue Jays fan, who tells you otherwise, is in denial.
AA did nothing to deserve getting replaced with Shapiro.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
I really wanted this guy to get another chance because his work with the Jays was commendable.
Well technically Ross Atkins was his replacement, Shapiro is on a more executive level.
Shapiro retains final say in player personnel for the Jays NOT Atkins. That is why AA left Toronto.
Shatkins as the Toronto faithful call him, as he is only a spokesman for Shapiro! when a President believes he is the only smart person in a room, you’re in trouble, and the Jays are in trouble!
So Aside from trading away the Farm for Tulo and Price. What did AA do? his record as the Jays GM was horrible. He made trades that were terrible when he got the Florida guys and traded away Thor for Dickey. If Beaston wasn’t leaving in 2015 he wouldn’t have done any of those trades. He drafted well. Atleast we think he did.
Ahh AA did amazing MLB level work for the Jays: How about Donaldson, Price, Dickey, Tulo, Estrada, Rasmus, Jason Fraser, Buhrele, Getting rid of Wells, etc etc….
@jmanone.
“What did AA do?”
Bring the Blue Jays back in the playoffs after 20+ years….
jamamone – Another person who doesn’t understand that MLB is more important than having a good AAA team. With the exception of Thor [and don’t be surprised if that elbow/arm/shoulder blows out] no other prospect was worth keeping for the talent AA got!
Nothing wrong with the Tulo and Price trades. None of the prospects have done anything and we were paying Tulo less than Reyes and he is much better defensively. Price dominated pure and simple. So your saying keep wishing upon a star and maybe one of the prospects they traded away might one day be a 4th starter. OK ,you do that.
Also, I wouldn’t call the trades for Tulowitski & Price triumphs. Tulowitski’s contract is now an albatross. The Jays need to move in another direction at shortstop, but can’t because they can’t trade Tulo’s contract. I’d rather have Jeff Hoffman at this point than Tulo. The Price trade wasn’t a win either. He didn’t get the job done in the playoffs & the Jays could certainly use the pitching depth that Norris & Bush would provide.
You’re looking at an attempt to bolster a team’s chances try an win it all in hindsight. Criticism of the Astros for acquiring Verlander, or the Cubs for what they gave up for Chapman would be much more severe if they hadn’t won the title. There would have been criticism of Anthopoulos if he had sat on his hands at the deadline and done nothing.
It’s easy to criticize a GM for a trade deadline failure when the team doesn’t win a title. Giants fans are still complaining about Sabean trading Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran. Beltran was the top player available that year as was Price in 2015. Price went 9-1 with a 2.30 ERA, and no one would be complaining about that acquisition had they won it all. They still won the division and advanced to the ALCS. Citing that as a failure is just Monday morning second-guessing.
They were 8 games back at the time of the Tulo trade, I’d say it worked out for that season. I don’t think anyone saw him declining that much in the following seasons but will still have the warm and fuzzy memories of 2015, and 16
Plus, people easily forget how bad Reyes was at short. The Jays wouldn’t of made the playoffs if they didn’t pull that trade for Tulo. It completely shored up the D at short.
Indeed
Anyone who understands baseball would be perfectly fine with the Price trade. It worked out the way it was supposed to . The problem with the Jays was Kansas City. They were hard to beat in 2015 as the Mets and Jays found out. It was the cost of doing business and some uninformed people have a hard time grasping it. Take it slow with them. As they get older they will get it.
If I recall, AA knew he was on the hot seat to get to the World Series or be gone, so he went “all-in”, leaving no one in the farm system untradeable.
He played that hand, depleting the farm system of its top prospect, but unfortunately, still lost.
Don’t forget that AA jettisoned Reyes in that deal to get Tulo. Reyes was an albatross money wise, defence wise, and of course his personal issues. We got back a solid defender and a division. Pretty good deal IMO
Dont forget AA also brought in Reyes in that Miami trade. While nobody moved in that deal has lit the world of fire, the negatives of the players brought in sank that season and left them in a situation where they had to pay someone to take Reyes and still take on the albatross Tulo deal. He had started to decline that season before they brought him in.
Do you understand what albatross means cause you use it a lot. The Jays have paid Tulo about 50 Mil while he was playing for them and he has earned almost 5 War in that time (even playing part time). That means he has earned his salary (War being worth average of 10 Mil in last three years). That is not an albatross. Tulo was only 32 this year and he definitely had a bad year but even if he doesn’t hit at all his defense will get him 2 War and that is all he needs to do as he is still not Reyes.
But do you remember the bad contract and player AA got rid of for Tulo? Jose Reyes! That was a good trade! I think the Braves will be very satisfied .
Best we could have gotten. Can’t believe we made this smart of a move
Good luck to Alex and the Braves! Atlanta was always my second favourite team since I used to get TBS as a kid (until my cable provider dropped them about a decade ago). And Alex did a good job helping to rejuvenate baseball up here. I hope that the Braves get back to how I remember them in the early 2000’s.
I loved the Tomahawk chop. They need to bring back the Indian to do his dance after HR’s.
Remember Ted and Jane swinging the foam tomahawks?
Now the Braves don’t have even half a lineup. Hard to do the Chop when there aren’t any bats.
Aren’t any bats? Sure, we have some issues with depth, but Freeman will get MVP votes playing with a wrist not at 100%, while have Altuve 2.0 in Albies, a lot of question marks in Swanson, Inciarte who continues to break out offensively, a lot of production from C with Flowers/Suzuki and the hottest hitting prospect on the planet in Acuna. That’s not including other guys coming up or any FA acquisitions. IF we can trim the fat (i.e. Kemp, Markakais) and have a few good depth signings, we could turn the record around quicker than most think.
The Braves have a very bright future
Tulo for Kemp & have Tulo hold down 3rd until Riley is ready. Camargo can play enough to keep Tulo fresh. Keep Markakis in LF & Acuna plays RF. Sign Addison Reed and Jake McGee for the bullpen and trade Matt Adams to Yanks for Betances.
You sir need a commom sense degree
Adams for Betances? We don’t need a 1B. Good luck with your coloring book & crayons!
Adams for Betances? Psssh, no way I’m not giving up Adams for anything less than Judge………
Let me add an lol before someone takes that seriously.
I like Alex as a person. I admire what he wanted to do for the city of Toronto and the organization. He wanted to win.
But he decimated our farm system, and now it’s hurting us. As much as I hate to say it, his trades were not as good as everyone think.
Acquired: Jose Reyes, Buehrle, Josh Johnson, Dickey, Thole, Donaldson, Price, Tulo
Gave away: Henderson Alvarez, Hechavarria, SYNDERGAARD, D’Arnaud, Norris, Graveman, Baretto, Hoffman
I’d much rather have the second group than the first. Oh well, good luck to him
He also traded away J. Musgrove, S. Dyson, DeSclafani,
He didn’t trade Dyson. Good try though.
Would you be okay keeping a strong farm, but not making the playoffs?
It’s a calculated trade.
Ridiculous to say AA hurt us. The Jays don’t make the playoffs and go deep in the playoffs TWICE without those trades. Don’t you remeber the Riccardi years or Ash years – nothing in the playoffs. Most of the minor leaguers AA traded away have come to nothing or are hurt most of the time, even Thor. Look what AA did: Donaldson, Estrada, Tulo for Reyes, Dickey, Thole, Travis, Burhele, Rasmus, Drafted: Pillar, Adeiny Hechavarria, Stroman, Alford, Davis, Urena, Barreto, Castro, Tellez, Greene, Graveman, Boyd, Hoffman, Penetcost, Amazing record.
Atlanta is lucky to have him.
The Jays are in draft and hold mode with Shapiro and Atkins and look what is happened, no playoffs, no retooling with CORE players at the major league level except spare parts, and the Jays definitely won’t make the playoffs in 2018 and unless the mgmt philosophy changes, and from what see won’t be playoff bound bound for 5 yrs +. It took 14 years for the Indians to reach the World Series under the “No tradeing prospects’ philosphy of Shapiro and even then the current cleveland regime had to celan up some of Shapiro’s mess of Bourne and Swisher etc.
Thor is the only one in that group that has done anything. Barretto and Hoffman have a chance to be solid contributors but the rest eh. But you got Donaldson, price, etc how is a bunch of kids better that proven mlb all stars. Also most of those trades were 3 years ago they should have been able to restock their farm system partially by then but have not had good drafts since.
Now all the Braves needs to do is get John Daniels from the Rangers and y’all would be set to go.
Braves fans need to get John Henry to sell the Red Sox and buy the Braves.
Greg Maffei is an international bloodsucker.
It’ll be interesting to see what AA does in ATL. He oversaw a Jays club that finally decided to increase the payroll every year this decade, sending them from around 20th in baseball to breaking the top-10, while being on the club with the highest payroll in the last 2 seasons. The Braves appear set to be around 20th in payroll, some $30m or so below league average next year. He’s going to have to be creative, though he’s inheriting a decent near-future outlook.
Liberty Media has always kept the budget in line with the previous year’s attendance ranking in MLB. ATL was 28th in attendance in 2016 (I believe) and 13th in 2017, so there should be an payroll hike that falls more in line. Considering 2017’s opening day payroll was 19th (and not 28th – which was the previous year’s attendance ranking), there’s definitely exceptions. Liberty could have forced them to lower their payroll, if they really wanted to hold them to it, but that didn’t happen.
Coppy was fairly diligent about not putting a lot of future contracts on the books, outside of dead money (Kemp, Olivera, etc.), so we should be in as good of a position to spend this year than pre-Melvin Upton.
Great to see AA bringing all his World Series rings to Atlanta. How many did he win in Toronto? I think it was five. AA is good, but he’s nowhere near the genius too many fair weather Jays fans would suggest.
I think I have pegged your problem. Everyone loved Alex when he was drafting and building the team but as soon as he started to trade some of the prospects that he felt weren’t going make it to the major leagues a few fans turned on him. You and your kind are hoarders. You want to keep all prospects and not trade any. Alex didn’t fit in those jeans anymore but you wanted him to keep them. Maybe he could lose a little weight next year and that sweater and socks match so keep them too. You need to let it go! 95 percent of the players he traded have done nothing. Most GM’s screw up way more trades than Alex ever has. There was one trade that bothered Alex and he let it be know at the time . He knew that he would hear about Thor for a long time and thought that he might win the Cy one year but he still did the trade because he has huge balls. He hoped that Cy Young Dickey would put him over the top along with Josh (glass) Johnson. It didn’t work out the way he hoped but every media outlet picked the Jays as the favorites that year. That’s why we play the games.
Mixed bag of great with this… The Braves rebuild looks amazing, one of the best, but that’s just a paper stat. Nothing has materialized yet. The AA hire could go either way since it’s not “his” farm system. Personally, I think the Braves made a great hire (though there are a few others I liked a bit more). Expect changes to be incoming though, starting with the notion of the “Braves Way”…
Name the few others please
Hope he doesn’t trade everyone out and try and make the team he wants.
As long as he doesn’t deal Freeman, Acuna or Maitan no worries.
That’s all the Braves have in their entire organization.
Yes, continue believing there’s no pitching on the farm. Who needs pitching anymore? Keep drinking the Kool-Aid.
This is a good combination Hart and AA, this team needs to make some key moves. He will make moves to help the team move forward. I do think he will have learned from his mistakes and he is not in the AL East anymore. It will be tough for anyone to catch the Nats any time soon.
I think there is a lot of recency bias when it come to people thinking AA is a great gm. Let’s not forget, he nearly went a decade without any success in Toronto. The only time he did have success is when he was on his way out and blew up the future. I by no means blame him completely for their lack of success nor think he’s a bad gm, I just don’t think he’s made out to be what everyone thinks.
He was only the GM for the 2010- 2016 seasons. He inherited a mess from JP Ricchardi. Remember BJ Ryan? Lol. 2015 and 2016 were the most successful seasons in the franchise in over 20 years. He did well. Yes he traded Thor and some other big name prospects, but he also moved Vernon Wells’ contract…..he picked up a guy that would win the MVP the season they got him….he’s not Jesus or anything but he’s a solid GM.
The “mess”is created by Rogers Cable stealing all the money.
That problem is still there.
Like what BravesCanda said,
AA inherited a mess from Ricciardi.
AA is by no means perfect, but he’s easily a top 10 GM when he’s doing his craft.
And if ‘blowing up the future’ is means back-to-back ALCS performances in 7 years, then I’ll take it.
Agreed, JD.
While I like AA as well, or better, than the other potential candidates, I’m concerned now about our farm system. Hopefully AA won’t trade away a lot of high potential prospects right off the bat for big names in an effort to garner big PR news. I think that the situation in Atlanta and Toronto are different enough that probably won’t happen this off season. If AA was a sponge for knowledge in LA and learned from his past mistakes then this could be a great hiring for the Braves. If he wants to make deals to make deals then the success might be short lived at best.
The situation called for an experienced GM, and the Braves definitely hit the mark in hiring AA. Every move he makes won’t turn to gold, but Alex will make things happen and keep the rebuild process progressing. Now we just need to know what sanctions the organization faces from MLB.
I just hope they’ve learned their lesson in having a checks-and-balances system to avoid future shenanigans that we’ve been accused of. AA has final say in baseball ops decisions, when Coppy did not, often deferring presumably to Hart who has been said didn’t have any knowledge of the shenanigans going on (hard to believe). You would think there would be more transparency in the future GM role, something I don’t think AA would have wanted – less power and freedom to make decisions – but I guess this means they believe and trust AA to make the right decisions, something that worries me before knowing our punishment.
Just remember that if he is going to be a Braves employee, that’s because the front office believe his philosophy and approach to running the team aligns with theirs. Don’t think he will have carte blanche to get trade happy with the farm system.
I’m not sure on this one. I’ll wait to see what he does.
This feels like a redux of Jays talk from 2 years ago. Some people loved him and some loathed him. I think he was 32 when he was handed the Jays GM job and the first thing he was asked to do was trade the best player the franchise ever developed, Roy Halladay. Welcome to being a MLB GM.
He inherited a horrible farm team and a mediocre pro team and spent the first 4 years running a lean organization that focused on drafting high ceiling pitching like Syndergard, Stroman, Sanchez, Osuna and others. When Encarnacion began flourishing and the Jays had Bautista and EE anchoring the middle he tried to accelerate the contending status by making the blockbuster with the Marlins that shocked the MLB world. People forget that the prime get for that for the Jays was Josh Johnson as he was a truly dominant number 1 starter who was coming off and injury and was expected to lead the Jays staff for years. Reyes was still considered a top SS and was coming off a dominant stretch with the Mets and his one year with the Marlins, and they got another 2b/SS type who’s name I cant remember that was expceptionally fast. The trade didnt work out great for either team really as the best player and one who impacted the Jays the most was Bhuerle who mentored many of the Jays young pitchers and showed them how to be pros while taking the ball every 5 days and pitching his 200 innings every year. You can see his impact in how Stroman focuses on inning in his discussions with the media. Toronto traded several of its good prospects but almost none of them panned out with the best being Hechevaria who was an all glove and no hit player and seems to still be that.
Then came the Donaldson trade that blew everyone away and him teaming up with EE and JB ushered in a short era of dominant slugging for the Jays. The fans started coming back when they sensed that this was a good exciting team to watch and AA became something of a folk hero in Canada. A smart young exciting Canadian elevating the Jays into the big time.
Then came the crucial year where he tried to pull everything together. Traded for the NL reigning Cy winner in Dickey and giving up two exceptionally talented players in Darnou and Syndergard. Even I had doubts on that one. Dickey didnt perform to his Cy status in the NL, but, he did a Bhuerle and put up consistent 200+ inning years and was a solid number 3 or 4 pitcher. Darnou kept on getting hurt and Syndergard flourished, until this year, and that became the worse trade in his tenure. He also signed Jay Happ who did well for the Jays and promoted Stroman to the rotation and when Toronto needed a little boost, he made the critical trades for Price, Tulo, and several others at the deadline and the Jays went on a tear. Yes he gave up some talent in the farm team, but, tell me which of them have become stars? The fans were energized and selling out every game, viewership was through the roof on Sportnet, fans were taking over other teams stadiums in Detroit, Baltimore, Seattle, Minnesota and others. Canada woke up and were into this team like it was the late 80s and 90s and they rode that crest to the ALCS where they run into a KC team that was at its crest.
Here is all you need to know about how popular AA was in Toronto: when the Jays clinched the playoffs in Baltimore for the first time in 22 years and 30k Jays fans took over Camden Yards and chanted Anthopoulis’ name to come out of the dugout and take a bow. When was the last time any GM got that done for him.
Good move!
Get ready for the Braves to claim every player ever put on waivers
Haha he did do that a lot.
This is the worst Braves move since Ted Turner coached a game.
Congrats to Braves fans. I think you guys are really gonna dig your new GM. Not everything he did in his time with our Jays was perfect, of course. But I loved his drive and motivation, and his ability to shift between caution and action. Good for Atlanta.
Absolutely great hire!!!
The problem with comments sections is that fans have differing levels of expertise and understanding of what’s really happening behind the scenes in baseball. I certainly don’t profess to be an expert, however, I do feel I have good insights. Regarding Shapiro and Atkins…my thoughts are this: yes, they played a big part in building the core of the current Indians team.
That said, some executives (and Managers) are great at taking a team from bad to good, but don’t know how to take it from good to great. Cleveland’s new management went out and made the trade for Andrew Miller, which is the #1 reason the Indians had that long playoff run last year, going to Game 7 of the World Series in 2016. Does Shapiro pull the trigger on that deal, giving up precious minor leaguers for a 1-inning reliever? We’ll never know.
As for AA, just the deal to bring in Donaldson makes him a star. Does Shapiro make that deal? Franklin Barretto, a 19 year old SS who everyone was raving about? Plus 4 more young players? If the answer is no, then I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the huge crowds at Rogers Centre the past 3 years don’t happen, the Canada-wide love affair with the team does not happen, the 40,000 per game attendance….the 2 playoff appearances, including the bat flip game vs texas….NONE of that happens without that trade. Think about that for a second at how 1 crazy, risky trade changed everything for a city and its baseball team. Billy Beane, the Oakland GM, recently said in an interview that trading Donaldson is his biggest trade regret. So I ask again, does Shapiro pull the trigger on Donaldson??
No, I don’t beleive Shapiro would do that Donaldson trade over again. In fact, it is known that the Jays were offered 15 different deals at last years trade deadline, and one of them was for Bautista for a good prospect and they didn’t pull the trigger. Go figure.
It was obvious to me and others the last year’s Jays team was going no where, yet no big deals for unloading players never materialized. Kinda a slow burn of rebuild rather than tear down. Keeps fans in the seats I guess. The motive would be money in that scenario.
I am excited if for nothing else with his history of being able to move unmovable contracts in Vernon Wells and Jose Reyes to see what he can do with Kemp.
I think Kemp would hold very good value for an AL team where he can DH fulltime.
Beltran retiring has just cleared a role somewhere…