Braves extend manager Fredi Gonzalez, so he’s not on the hot seat after all
The Atlanta Braves continue to eye the future and let the present tick along with a shrug. The club announced Friday that it has extended manager Fredi Gonzalez’s contract through the 2016 season with an option for the all-important 2017 season.
The Braves’ spanking new stadium opens in 2017 and there’s been a belief around baseball that their trades and roster construction over the past year were looking toward two years from now. At the same time, there had been a belief that Gonzalez could lose his job this season, since he’s in the final year of his contract.
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But the Braves re-upped with Gonzalez, who has the club at 42-47 heading into Friday’s action. Gonzalez isn’t the top manager on the hot seat in the second half, but he’s been mentioned in that conversation since the beginning of the year. The Braves dealt Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, Craig Kimbrel and Jason Heyward before the start of the 2015 season, so getting rid of a manager who’s 358-290 in four seasons wouldn’t be their most surprising move.
If the Braves aren’t serious about contending next year either — and they’d never admit such a thing publicly — then Gonzalez can bide his time, try to exceed expectations with a so-so roster and hope to be kept around once SunTrust Park opens in the Atlanta ‘burbs.
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Of course, as ex-Milwaukee Brewers manager Ron Roenicke will tell you, an extended contract is no guarantee that you still won’t get fired. The Brewers picked up Roenicke’s 2016 option in March, then fired him in May.
Paying two managers doesn’t seem to fit what we’ve heard about the Braves’ rebuilding strategy, so Fredi can likely throw an ice pack on that hot seat and chill out for the next 15 months.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
