Growing Pains
Things didn’t get any better on the field as Hart and Coppolella started with multiple dramatic moves to reshape the direction of the club.
In 2015, the team posted a 67-95 record at what would be the nadir of the abyss. Shortly therafter, Hart declared that Coppolella’s apprenticeship was complete and kicked himself upstairs, naming Coppolella as the General Manager.
Even while the rebuild was still in full swing, Coppolella was demanding better results on the field. After a 9-28 start in 2016, he fired manager Fredi Gonzalez in a move that seemed to be a relief to almost everyone involved as it appeared the sword hanging over Gonzalez’ head had been following him for months.
That brought up AAA manager Brian Snitker to salvage the season as the interim field boss until season’s end.
A funny thing happened, though: the Braves were still bad, but rallied to a 59-65 mark under Snitker and the team – led by Freddie Freeman – lobbied for Snitker to be retained. The demands were ultimately honored and he’s been in the dugout ever since.
The Scandal
But there was much more going on under Coppolella’s watch. As it is, we’ll almost certainly never know the full extent of what went on or who was the most responsible for what happened.
What appears to have taken place, though, is that Coppolella and International scouting director Gordon Blakeley conspired together to go well beyond the normal pattern of behavior that teams had been exercising in the process of acquiring talent from Latin America and beyond.
Blakeley had been doing this for the Yankees while Coppolella was also on staff there, and the belief is that Coppolella armed Blakeley with a virtual blank check to do whatever was necessary to land as many players as he could during the 2016-2017 signing period.
In doing so, they ran afoul of some specific no-no’s that MLB had previously declared to be in place regarding the use of ‘packaging’ players to circumvent bonus rules.
Almost immediately after the Red Sox were caught doing this, the Braves implemented their own similar plan… and in stonewalling the subsequent investigation, Coppolella was not just fired, but also banned from baseball.
All of the players acquired as a result of the rule circumvention were decalred free agents – including Korean shortstop Ji-Hwan Bae, who was singled out not because of the $300,000 signing bonus he received but because of the $600K extra that he was to received under the table.
The penalties imposed ultimately have harmed future Braves’ teams greatly… perhaps resulting in a decade of damage between lost players, lost future international signings, reduced international spending, and lost presence in the scouting of international players.
Never mind the black mark on the franchise itself.