Atlanta Braves: Which general manager really deserves the credit?

After many years of having stability at the general manager position, the Atlanta Braves have had a rotating door it seems the last few years.

However, which Atlanta Braves GM had the biggest hand in the current organizational makeup?

John Schuerholz still has a hand in the current roster as he was the one who drafted both Freddie Freeman and Julio Teheran. That’s about the extent of his work that is still left though.

So let’s go back to October of 2007 when Frank Wren was appointed the heir to Schuerholz.

Wren made some moves that were just plain terrible (Melvin/BJ Upton, and Kenshin Kawakami), but on the other hand, he made moves that the Atlanta Braves are still reaping the benefits from.

He was the general manager who signed Freddie Freeman to the 8-year, $135M deal that he is still playing on.

In the extension spree Wren went on that winter, he also signed Julio Teheran to a 6-year, $32m extension.

Frank Wren’s best and longest lasting work was through the international signing period though.

It was Wren who signed Johan Camargo, Ozzie Albies, and yes Ronald Acuna out of Central America.

So while, yes, Wren did make some miscalculations for the Atlanta Braves, we can always thank him for those signings.

For the next phase, I’m going to include John Hart and John Coppolella as a tandem because, in truth, they ran the Atlanta Braves together.

Let’s recap that duo’s work.

Hart and Coppy got to work and started the rebuild the Atlanta Braves faced. They traded away Justin Upton among others, but yes, we did acquire Max Fried in that Upton deal.

They also signed Nick Markakis to be a stability block through the rebuild and honestly, where would we have been without Nick in the 2018 run?

Continuing on, Coppy and Hart acquired more players that are playing instrumental roles in 2019 and were huge in the division winning season last year. A couple of quick reminders

• Acquired Mike Foltynewicz in the Evan Gattis trade with the Astros
• Acquired Touki Toussaint in the Bronson Arroyo contract dump
• Acquired Sean Newcomb in the Andrelton Simmons trade (Yes, many will say this was not a good trade, and it probably wasn’t, but it’s not like Newk is a scrub)
• Acquired Luke Jackson in an under the radar trade with the Rangers

But honestly, the biggest trade of them all was, of course, the Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and Aaron Blair trade for Shelby Miller they pulled off with the Diamondbacks.

Aaron Blair never amounted to much, and Ender has fallen on hard times, but Dansby alone is worth more than Shelby ever will be.

But the real reward that Coppy and Hart are giving us right now is the fact they drafted Mike Soroka and Austin Riley for us both in the same draft.

Obviously, it’s still extremely early, but the early prognosis is that the 2015 Atlanta Braves draft could be a night the Braves struck gold.

Now, we obviously have Alex Anthopoulos at the helm and he has made a few minor moves.

Unlike some, I was a fan of the Josh Donaldson signing. It deepened the bench with the addition of Camargo, and Donaldson, if fully healthy, can be a game changer.

The Brian McCann signing has turned out good as well…but honestly, from the sound of it, Brian was gonna sign here no matter who the GM was.

The biggest contribution AA has made is he signed both Ozzie Albies and Ronald Acuna to way below market extensions that will keep them in Atlanta for a long time.

So far we have seen Alex Anthopoulos mostly leave the roster alone beside a few tinkers here and there.

UPDATE: Since this article was written, AA made a big signing. 

I believe this July will be a huge deadline for AA if he wants the fans to truly believe that he has a plan for the Braves to truly compete.

In closing, yes, John Coppolella and John Hart did shady business, but they should be remembered for a large part of the current product the Atlanta Braves are fielding. They are a driving hand for the current success the organization is seeing on the field.

Frank Wren should also be remembered for the fortunes he brought the team as well.

I think Alex Anthopolous has the tools to do more of the same, but it’s time for him to show us.