House That Hank Built
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John Hart Named Braves President of Baseball Operations

By Fred Owens

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Ken Rosenthal and others reported a few minutes ago that John Schuerholz sort of got his way and John Hart will become President of Baseball Operations.

The wait isn’t over but the picture is becoming clear, Hart doesn’t want to wear the GM tag and do all of the grunt work. He agreed to take this position after weeks of friendly pressure from his old friend Schuerholz. Rosenthal and Braves beat writer David O’Brien agree that Hat will hire a GM mush like Andrew Freidman did in LA.

Last week Jeff Passan tweeted  that Hart had formally turned down the GM job. In spite of denials by JS Passan was right. Since the beginning of this front office makeover Hart has maintained his position that at 66 he doesn’t want to be the GM. It appears that the consistent strong but friendly pressure from JS finally persuaded him to take a permanent role in the front office if they hire a GM to do the day to day drudgery and allow hart to work at an executive level.

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    • Since the original news conference the three wise men have proceeded with changes and made it clear any GM would have to accept the management team the three wise men put in place. So they rapidly started  bringing back former Braves stalwarts to the player development and scouting staff.  In addition to extending Fredi Gonzalez they brought back Roy Clark as special assistant to the future GM, promoted Brian Bridges to scouting director and hired Dave Trembly as Director of player development with Jonathan Schuerholz as his assistant.

    Another constant from the beginning was praise for current Braves Assistant GM John Coppolella so it makes sense Coppolella will be named as the GM under Hart. This will allow Hart to guide him through the complex off season upheaval facing the Braves while grooming him for bigger and better things.  In a blog posting for the AJC O’Brien agrees.

    "The team will still presumably replace fired general manager Frank Wren with another person who’ll report to Hart. Current assistant general manager John Coppolella, 36, is believed to be a frontrunner for that position, an arrangement that would allow “Coppy” to, in effect, be groomed on the job while Hart is there to oversee operations."

    That’s A Wrap

    I believe Coppolella will be named soon as GM and with the last piece in place they can begin the job of balancing the roster. It won’t be easy and familiar names are bound to be involved. Their task is to work within the confines of a restricted payroll, existing long term current contract commitments and future arbitration costs to provide a team capable of challenging the ever improving teams in the NL East and MLB in general. So, what are they going to do after lunch?

    Whatever they do we’ll watch closely and keep you informed here at the Take.

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