Atlanta Braves owe nods to John Coppolella, Frank Wren
The Plan
After a year working under John Hart, Assistant GM John Coppolella – already in that position since 2012 – was then elevated to the top post, having been working under John Hart after the departure of Wren.
On the surface, Coppolella said all the right things and appeared to be doing all of the right things. His plan was to rebuild… from the ground up… with the goal of shortening the time in the tank.
The Braves were saddled with some tough contracts… and he was certainly involved in some of those transactions as AGM. So many of the actions he undertook as part of the rebuild stood to undermine things he had either done himself or at least advocated while working for Wren. That’s both bold and admirable to recognize mistakes and to attempt corrections.
Some of the talent he also parted with was significant: names like Upton… and Upton… Kimbrel… Heyward… Miller… Bourn… Simmons… Wood… and others.
Some of these deals may have been ill-advised, no doubt. But a General Manager will probably miss on trades and contracts as often as he succeeds.
Coppolella’s plan was tri-fold in nature:
- Clear bad contracts and dead money
- Use assets to acquire top prospect talent and extra draft picks
- Be aggressive in the International marketplace
The approach was solid. The results seemed to be coming as well, though perhaps not as quickly as had been hoped, for the plan was also to aim for a specific date in the future… Opening Day 2018. That choice (to coincide with the opening of SunTrust Park) was probably too optimistic.
Ambitious goals are often good goals, but not when they become self-consuming.
Office Rumblings
We only have rumors on the turmoil said to exist in the Front Office in 2017. Rumblings of a ‘hostile’ work environment began to emerge. What became apparent was a pattern of behavior – centered around Coppolella – that was not healthy.
As reported in Sports Illustrated at the time:
"As the team on the field struggled on the field, things apparently were even worse off of it. Back in August, Rosenthal reported on a power struggle between two front-office factions, with Coppolella and long-time baseball executive John Hart on one side and former Braves GM John Schuerholz on the other. At the same time, several title changes and reassignments were made for a bevy of front office personnel. … According to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan, the league has been looking at Coppolella and the Braves for several weeks and uncovered “numerous issues,” also receiving an anonymous complaint from another team, and that the league was investigating potential problems with Atlanta’s domestic draft and Coppolella’s treatment of team employees. Passan also describes the Braves’ front office as “a wasteland of infighting in recent weeks,” with “chaos centered around Coppolella.”"