They’re already calling for Fredi Gonzalez’s job in Atlanta

The Atlanta Braves were supposed to be bad coming into the season. That’s what happens when you trade off all your major-league assets for future considerations. It wasn’t a big secret. Everyone knew the Braves were coming into the year in a clear rebuilding phase.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Baseball contest now]

Thus far, the club has definitely lived up to those expectations. Through 21 games, the team is just 4-17. That’s the worst record in the majors. While it’s early, and the team probably won’t play .190 ball the rest of way, there are already some who want to see manager Fredi Gonzalez fired. Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has seen enough bad baseball this season, and thinks the Braves need to dump Gonzalez.

Other than the fact that it’s incredible early in the year for a team to dismiss a manager, there’s nothing too shocking about Bradley’s opinion. The Braves were supposed to be awful, and haven’t been a good team since 2013. Managers who post three straight losing seasons don’t typically stick around. It wasn’t hard to see this coming. Even the oddsmakers had Gonzalez as the first manager to be fired this season.

It’s also widely believed that the Braves have been rebuilding with an eye toward 2017. The team’s new stadium will open next year, and many have speculated that the Braves want to put a contending team on the field to commemorate the occasion.

The new stadium, and the team’s supposed contention plans, definitely seem to signal a new era of Braves baseball. That era was probably never going to include Gonzalez.

While calling for Gonzalez’s head is fair, you can’t say the Braves put him in a position to succeed the past few seasons. Gonzalez started out as a promising manager while with the Miami Marlins, and won early in his tenure with the Braves, but there were missteps along the way. Most notably during Game 4 of the 2013 NLDS, when the Braves blew a late lead against the Los Angeles Dodgers while Gonzalez left the best reliever in baseball, Craig Kimbrel, in the pen.

The Braves disappointed in 2014, winning 79 games, and then the team began selling off parts that offseason. Jason Heyward and Justin Upton were shipped out, as was Evan Gattis. Just a few games into the 2015 season, the team parted with Kimbrel and Melvin Upton. Unsurprisingly, they finished with 67 wins in 2015.

[Elsewhere: Rockies rookie Trevor Story is about to make the wrong kind of history]

(AP Photo/Todd Kirkland) It’s not fair to think any manager could have made a different to the club last season. If you don’t have good players, it’s going to be incredibly tough to win. The same can be said of the Braves this year. Even if the team had brought in some coaching savant, it’s tough to argue they could have done anything to drastically improve this club. Daniel Castro, Adonis Garcia and Jeff Francouer batting second, third and fifth for the club Wednesday night. No manager is leading that lineup to 95 wins.

With all of that said, Gonzalez is likely going to be fired at some point. While 21 games into the season seems early, the Milwaukee Brewers did pull the plug on Ron Roenicke after just 25 last year.

The bigger and more interesting question will be what happens once Atlanta decides to part ways with Gonzalez. If contention in 2017 is really the goal, it makes sense that the team would look for an established manager with a strong track record. Former San Diego Padres skipper Bud Black is available, and is regarded well, but it’s unclear if he would take the Braves job in May and ride things out with such a horrible team. Black could wait until later in the year and maybe catch on with a club he believes can contend sooner.

The other option is promoting an interim coach already in the team’s organization. Bradley mentions Terry Pendelton, Eddie Perez or Bo Porter as possible options. The problem there is none of those guys are likely to improve the club either, so they wind up managing an awful team and then likely get replaced when a new regime comes in during the offseason. Porter already experienced some of that with the Houston Astros.

The good thing is, many analysts believe in the young talent the Braves have acquired recently. The farm system is well-regarded, and the club could feature a number of impact youngsters soon. Maybe contention in 2017 is aggressive, but that might not be far off. It’s easy to look at guys like Dansby Swanson, Sean Newcomb and Aaron Blair and see that the future is close.

[Elsewhere: Netting at Nationals Park saved fans from being hit by a splintered bat]

Once the young players are ready, it will be key that the team finds a manager capable of handling the ups-and-downs that come with having a young team, and also someone who can make smart on-field decisions. Getting rid of Fredi Gonzalez is the easy move, picking the right successor will be much more difficult.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports: