There are a lot of things that we had figured on and heard about how the Braves might proceed in preparing for the 2018 season. Now we have no clue… but that ain’t gonna stop us from guessing.
The Atlanta Braves are in a bit of turmoil right now. Okay, it’s a lot of turmoil. Let’s go through the obvious list real quick:
- No General Manager.
- A new Assistant GM who’s been on the job for only 3 weeks.
- A new Director of Player Personnel who’s been on the job for only 3 weeks.
- Regardless of their prior reputations, both of these men will undoubtedly have the stigma of being ‘Coppy’s Men’ for as long as they are with the organization… and neither knows the system yet. So while the Braves have said that their jobs are secure… I am personally not so certain.
- As such, John Hart is the only executive-level overseer who has any knowledge of the farm… and the depth of his knowledge is unknown since he had been pulling away from day-to-day operations.
- …or least that’s the perception. It’s the only real explanation about how Hart didn’t know that a lot of these actions were taking place. Yet he was drawing a paycheck with the official duties of ‘GM oversight’.
- Asst Baseball Ops. Director Kiley McDaniel has been punted as far away as possible – to ‘West Coast Crosschecker’ – in what seems to have been obvious demotion. However…
- …Dave Cameron of fangraphs stated during a Wednesday chat session:
"“He didn’t get demoted; he took that job several weeks ago, well before all this came out.”"
My guess? He wanted to get far away from a dysfunctional and unhealthy office situation.
- The rest of the Front Office probably still looks to be unsettled (at best) after enduring whatever mental torture Coppy was apparently putting them through.
Some Random Thoughts/Predictions
- We should probably see a couple of announcements coming this week about various additional changes. These would include…
- Snitker’s return
- Some additional positional changes in the front office. What will be interesting there is whether/how they reward whistleblowers… or stabilize the office situation in general.
- Either the quick announcement of a Dayton Moore triumphant return or the announcement of open interviews for the position. The second part would signal that Moore isn’t coming.
- If the interviews are thrown open to all, it could take a while to sort through the resumes:
Talking to people around the league, same sentiment is shared: #Braves GM opening is heavily coveted.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) October 2, 2017- We know that the bullpen was to be a priority for 2018. That still should be the case.
- We know that the team wants to make a space for Ronald Acuna in the outfield. That still should be the case.
- Third base is an unsettled position… that could change. If Moore were hired, it would be natural for him to reach out to Mike Moustakas once the free agency period begins.
On Free Agents in General
I had recently been contemplating Japanese baseball star Shohei Otani. If he is seriously attempting to come to the United States this winter – as reports suggest – then his motivation is clearly not about money… at least in the short term.
As such, I was starting to move from ‘there’s no possible way the Braves could ever be involved because they are limited to $300K’ to ‘well… maybe he might actually be willing to take a $300K deal since he’s clearly giving up millions by migrating now’. Getting $500K of additional International spending power from the Dodgers last week bolstered that thought a bit.
Now I’m back to “there’s no possible way.” There’s some cynicism now that even if the Braves were talking to him, there would have been something else involved from under the table. Obviously that’s no longer going to happen – at least in that manner.
As for others – one way for fans to forget about Coppy and the embarrassment he has brought down upon the organization is to give fans something to cheer about.
While it was perhaps becoming a season to watch ‘the kids’ finish development, a new GM – whoever that might become – could choose to go more strongly for trades and/or free agents as a means to both getting his own stamp on the organization and getting a winning team on the field.
How/whether that’s done will depend largely on the personality of the man – or woman (MLB’s Kim Ng would be a viable candidate – selected for the role. But it’s something to hope for.
Also: Atlanta will need to get their new GM up and running quickly if there’s any chance of getting that person up to speed quickly enough for the free agent season and Winter Meetings.
So even while Moore might not be hired, they cannot allow this opening to linger for more than another week or two: all of baseball will need to know what the Atlanta Braves intend to do this off-season… and MLB needs to finish their investigation so they can go ahead and assign whatever additional punishment that might befit the crimes involved.
What will that punishment ultimately be?
There is a whole lot of “everybody has been doing that, too” floating around. True, though the Braves have been caught in a very public way, and that usually demands a public example be made of them.
The current company line being repeated now is that the team doesn’t expect any players to be lost. Okay – I don’t know how they would know such a thing at this point, but that’s the talking point.
However, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t lose some future players. I could expect any/all of the following:
- A ban on International signings for a year (the Red Sox penalty)
- a multi-million dollar fine
- A lost draft pick – perhaps a 2nd rounder – should the allegations connected to Drew Waters pan out.
Still more to come. That much is certain.