Atlanta Braves: My week as Braves GM
For any Atlanta Braves fan, the moment would be incredible. The opportunity to take over the reigns of your favorite squad for just one day in the offseason. What if it happened?
First off, this piece is fiction. Sort of. The players and moves mentioned are the moves I would love to see happen for the Atlanta Braves over the winter, but obviously, since this event takes place in the future, it has not yet happened and is written as fiction, so any conversations mentioned are fictional and all in my head (insert joke here).
That introduction all aside, let’s get into my week as the Atlanta Braves GM:
How it all happened
The night was November 10th, a normal Saturday night. I’d just put the kids to bed, and I was settling in for some Netflix and writing. Then my phone rang, with a 404 area code, not one I normally get, but the ID code reading “Atlanta Braves” caused me to pick up.
I’ll save the story, but needless to say, a horrid illness had taken over the Atlanta Braves front office. Through a mutual connection, Alex Anthopolous called me, of all people, to ask me to represent the Braves the next week at the GM meetings.
We ironed out details and team plans for the next two hours, and I took much better notes than I did in any college lecture hall. My wife called in vacation hours, and we sent a note to the kids’ schools to get them out of town for the week for a vacation for them, but a working week for me. We flew out Sunday night for the November 12th meetings.
The first day was quite entertaining to say the least. I spent the day meeting everyone and explaining why I was there, and that, yes, I did have the authority to speak on behalf of the Braves. Perhaps it was due to believing I would be naive, or perhaps it was the chance to hang out with my family by the pool (seriously, no one else brought their family?!), but I had plenty of requests to chat outside of meetings by the end of that first day from GMs present and agents who were hanging out outside of the meeting rooms all week.
By the end of the week, the Atlanta Braves offseason was essentially complete. Here’s what went down…