The Atlanta Braves fired their manager Fredi Gonazlez on Tuesday, after the team got off to one of the worst starts in MLB history. Which, considering how long they’ve been playing ball in the big leagues, says something.
But the way that Gonzalez found out about his hiring was uncommon.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien, it was through an email:
An hour or so after the Braves’ 8-5 series-opening loss to the Pirates, a person familiar with the situation said Gonzalez received an email notifying him of his scheduled flight to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon.
That was a bad sign, since the four-game series in Pittsburgh runs through Thursday.
Gonzalez and general manager John Coppolella have been addressing rumors about Gonzalez’s job status for weeks, since the Braves were losing their first nine games of the season on the way to a 9-28 record through Monday. So when he got the email, it had to be a bad sign for Gonzalez.
The Braves had already made the decision to fire him and booked his commercial flight home Tuesday, but didn’t plan to tell him he’d been fired until Tuesday morning, after president of baseball operations John Hart flew to Pittsburgh to join general manager John Coppolella.
It certainly doesn’t sound like the best way for things to go down. But even Gonzalez knows that there’s no perfect time to do it, as he told the AJC:
“I think you do it when they feel like the time is right, so they did it.”
“I think if you’re going to do it you do it now. If you’re not going to be here (as manager) in 2017, you’d rather do it sooner than later, for me. I’m ok with that. It’s a tough grind. Winning ballgames in the big leagues is tough when you’re winning, can you imagine when you’re losing and going through this?”
The Braves will now be under the control of Brian Snitker, a former Braves third base coach (2006-13) that was managing the Braves’ AAA affiliate in Gwinnett since the start of the 2014 season.
Despite there certainly not being a good time to fire somebody ever, that’s probably not an ideal way to find out if you’re Gonzalez.
[AJC]
