Why Frank Wren Was Fired

Irreconcilable philosophical differences.  That’s the bottom line.  But the more we keep hearing leak out from 755 Hank Aaron Drive in the past 30-ish hours, the more we see of a picture painted with an internal struggle between ‘Frank’s Way’ vs. ‘John Schuerholz’ Way’.  But it appears that the rift was even deeper than that

Personality Clashes

Dave Wallace, described by Mark Bowman as a ‘pitching guru’, left for the Baltimore Orioles.  So did “highly-regarded” scout Dom Chiti.  You will recall that the Braves almost lost major league pitching coach Roger McDowell over the summer.  Bowman indicated that it was Schuerholz’ personal intervention that kept him in Atlanta.  Wallace was said to have been content to continue working with the up-and-coming minor league pitchers.  Yet he bolted for the majors after what has been termed a clash with ‘members of the front office’.

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That points to Wren and former Assistant GM Bruce Manno

, who was in charge of minor league player development, and thus would be the executive overseer of both Wallace and Chiti.  There had been no indication of any issues between Roger McDowell and the major league managerial staff (i.e.,

), but – for whatever reason – there was an issue that almost drove McDowell away as well.  That likewise points to the front office as the source.

The handwriting was probably on the wall back in November when John Hart was hired to be a senior advisor to Schuerholz.  At the time, this seemed to be little more than what was advertised:  essentially an emeritus position for an old friend.

Looking back from here, it now appears that Hart (now the interim GM) perhaps was brought on to look deeper into the activities of the front office and make operational suggestions.  In the grand scheme of things, you could now safely say that Wren was probably put on notice at that point – and failed to make the changes that Schuerholz believed were necessary to keep his job.  Once further conflicts surfaced – losing those key staff members, for instance – then it was just a matter of time.

The Factions

On the “old school” side, you had several heavy hitters lined up:  John Schuerholz, John Hart, Bobby Cox, and Fredi Gonzalez.  On the other side, you had Frank Wren and Bruce Manno.  Wren wanted to oust Gonzalez.  That didn’t go over well at all.

That was apparently the final straw.  Wren pushed one button that he wasn’t allowed to push, and the Old Guard showed him the door instead.

The real head-scratcher in all of this is that Schuerholz announced contract extensions for both Wren and Gonzalez back in February – which would have had them both under deals through the 2015 season at least (terms were not announced, though David O’Brien thought they were for 2 more seasons: 2015-16):

So you’d have to think that Schuerholz was continuing to think Wren was heading in the right direction just 8 months ago.  Huh.

Wasn’t it about the bad contracts?

They might have contributed, but I will suggest that this was not the overriding reason.  For the record, Wren has gotten the Braves into increasingly larger deals in the free agent (or near-free agent market):

• Kenshin Kawakami.  3 years/$23m.  Seemed like a cunning move at the time, and one that more-or-less worked for a year-ish, but was a disaster at the end.
• Derek Lowe.  Wren preferred A.J. Burnett at the time, but Burnett chose the Yankees.  With very few options and a real need for frontline starting pitching, Wren allowed a 4 year, $60m deal and Lowe responded with the worst 4 years of his career (one w/Cleveland).  I still think today that both men would have been better had they swapped cities.
• Dan Uggla.  After a trade that seemed like a steal, Atlanta gave Uggla what Miami refused:  4 years/$52m.  Sure, because of his age, some regression was expected over the contract.  But the nuclear meltdown was hardly expected.
• B.J. Upton.  5 years, $75.25 million (2 years of that now complete).  Certainly for a contract of this size, Schuerholz and CEO Terry McGuirk would have been involved to ‘sign-off’ on this deal, a situation in which Wren tried to get ‘out in front’ of the thin market for free agent center fielders that year as he sought to replace Michael Bourn.

So even with the ‘bad’ deals in that list, I submit that that there was either a baseball/market rationale or an organizational agreement leading to the direction in which these deals were made.  Additionally, contract rates have indeed skyrocketed in the past 10 years.

There were other public issues:  people point to the Nate McLouth trade, for instance, but recall that was an in-season emergency deal required because of Jordan Schafer‘s injury.  It appeared that we gave up a lot in 2010:  Gorkys Hernandez (was expendable), Charlie Morton, and Jeff Locke.  Both pitchers have had their moments, but the Braves’ haven’t really missed them.

Certainly, Wren’s propensity to find pitchers on the scrap heap (Jonny Venters, Eric O’Flaherty to name just two) and release them to our coaching staff has been a hallmark of his time with Atlanta.  The Justin Upton trade – even if it had been conducted in part because of B.J.’s presence – has to be considered a big success.

So yes:  the above deals (Justin’s included) have cost a considerable amount of money to the organization.  But if that’s the full list of the worst things about his 7 seasons at the helm, then honestly, I’d take that.

So What Kind of Post-Mortems Did We Get?

From Wren:

"“It was an honor to be the general manager of the Braves for seven years,” Wren said. “I think we had some success; not as much as we’d like. Probably the thing I’m most proud of is that for the last six full seasons, up until today our fans had only watched three games that weren’t meaningful, in the last week of ’09…. The fans have been supportive and great, and I wish the franchise nothing but the best.”"

From the Braves:

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Yes, this is the point at which Schuerholz, et al, usually have something magnanimous to say about the tenure, the accomplishments, the relationships, etc. That did not happen yesterday.

Instead, we’re left with glacially-cold shoulders from the remaining Braves’ brass while Wren is thrown under the bus as the designated sacrifice for the ills of the 2014 campaign.  If you heard anything, it was Bobby Cox going way out of his way to express total support for Fredi Gonzalez.

But I’m guessing that’s the new ‘Braves Way.’