Atlanta Braves under investigation John Coppolella resigns

What we don’t know yet

According to David O’Brien the Braves haven’t announced replacements which make sense; they’ve barely had time to breath. John Heyman tweets that Hart is not going and will take over the reins until they decide on a successor. Hart staying is not news. Braves President Terry McGuirk said as much in an interview I wrote about last week.

In the past there have been similar investigations into the Nationals and Red Sox with personnel involved staying in one case and resigning in the other. Bon Nightengale tweets that this probably end Coppolella’s involvement with MLB.  That probably goes for Blakeley as well, he was Coppy’s mentor with the Yankees.

We also have no idea what rules may have been infringed and to what extent.  In August 2014 MLB made changes to the rules that prohibited young players from being at a team facility until they are 16 years old or until six months before they become eligible to sign.

The amount a team may spend has also been drastically reduced in recent years. The manipulation of those limits through piggy backing is what got the Red Sox in trouble in 2015. Baseball America wrote about how a team could circumvent the bonus rules at the time.

"The most obvious route. . (is) a package deal. Take a player for July 2 you want to sign for $2 million, but give $1.5 million . . .give $500,000 to another player from the same trainer before (the next)  July 2. Prior . . .so you save half a million dollars from your 2012-13 bonus pool."