Atlanta Braves: candidates for General Manager?
DAN JENNINGS
Jennings was GM under the thumb of former Marlins’ owner Jeffrey Loria, so it is truly difficult to get a read on how well he did his job… even before he decided to become the manager in 2016.
Certainly, his team on the field endured a tremendous amount of turmoil, tragedy, and general adversity. That said, the Fish have a great core of young players in the field (never mind that they are preparing to ship off some of them).
When the Fish fired him after 2016, Jennings still actually had 2 years left on his contract – which runs through 2018. He was picked up by Mike Rizzo to be a ‘Special Assistant’ to the GM, which made the Marlins complain – and ultimately lose – about still having to pay Jennings while he worked for a division rival.
So much Marlins.
BEN CHERINGTON
Now a VP of Baseball Operations with Toronto, Cherington – still only 43 years old – was the Red Sox GM from 2011 until his resignation late in the 2017 season after Dave Dombrowski had been brought in as baseball operations President.
Cherington’s reign was spotty… he hired Bobby Valentine as manager… that didn’t go well. He then hired current manager John Farrell.
In terms of players, Cherington had money to spend and he spent it – though not always wisely.
- Jake Peavy – was okay in 2013 (2n half), but not very good for them in 2014’s first half.
- Pablo Sandoval – this was a bad contract from the moment the ink hit the paper
- He was able to unload multiple huge contracts in a massive Dodgers’ trade in 2012 – sending Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Adrian Gonzalez west.
- The Red Sox was the 2013 World series on his watch.
Hard to imagine what Cherington would do on a smaller budget, but the current Red Sox team owes its home-grown roots to Cherington’s leadership.
BILLY RYAN
Ryan was an Assistant GM under Coppolella until being reassigned as part of the attempt to purge ‘dissenting voices’ as O’Brien termed the August moves.
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Ryan would be the ultimate ‘internal candidate’, having been in the front office since late 2014. His role is currently a bit fuzzy: he had been Director of Baseball Operations and was moved to ‘Special Assistant’ status after the August shuffle. He had been a professional scouting director previously, so he certainly knows the system.
His previous background includes stints as a scouting supervisor with the Indians, a Labor Relations agent for MLB, and AGM of the Diamondbacks – so he is not exactly a newbie to the intricacies of the position.
Ryan’s presence would serve both as a show of continuity to the organization and a means to keep John Hart in his current advisory role.
That’s the current list… which may or may not be the full list under consideration by the Braves. But it’s a fair guess that one of these men will be running their ship before December.