The Downfall of the Atlanta Braves due to General Manager Frank Wren - crazymallard's Blog

crazymallard's Blog

The Downfall of the Atlanta Braves due to General Manager Frank Wren

Posted on January 11, 2009 at 03:23 PM.

Some people will likely vehemently oppose my stance on Frank Wren's presence with the Atlanta Braves, but I believe he is one of the worst General Managers in baseball today. In July of last year, when the Braves were 11 games out of first place in the N.L. East, Wren said that it was time to begin making plans for the off season and getting the team into shape for 2009. At first, I was annoyed with him because he seemed to be giving up on his own team just after the midpoint of the season. At the same time, though, I figured that if he was already beginning to focus on the off season, maybe the Braves would be able to make some really big moves to put them in playoff contention next year.
Then the offseason began, and numerous reports concerned possible signings of both Jake Peavy and A.J. Burnett. However, both of these deals fell through. Then came the news of Rafael Furcal signing with the Braves. That possibility was then eliminated when Furcal ended up signing with the Dodgers again (though that was not Wren's fault). The Braves's only major off season acquisition so far has been Javier Vasquez, a starter who would likely be utilized in the middle of the rotation.
Finally, news was released yesterday of John Smoltz signing an offer sheet and intending to join the Boston Red Sox next year. This report completely caught me by surprise because I never would have expected Smoltz to leave the Braves, especially when he has been with the team since the late 1980s. However, when more info was released about the offer Smoltz had accepted from the Red Sox, and the offer the Braves had presented him with, I was more inclined to believe that Frank Wren is nothing but a plague on the team, and that he has no business being a general manager. He offered Smoltz somewhere between $2-2.5 million guaranteed. For an ace of Smoltz's caliber, that is horrible, and I can begin to understand why he accepted Boston's offer of $5 million guaranteed. For Wren to be completely unwilling to increase his offer to John Smoltz shows his ineptitude in the general manger position on the team, and is just one more example of how he has almost single-handedly destroyed the Braves's chances of returning to dominance in 2009.
I look forward to the day that Frank Wren is no longer the general manager of the Atlanta Braves. Until that day, I am afraid he will have no idea of how to help this team or get anything done at all, and if the Braves somehow make a run at the playoffs, it will be completely without the support of their own general manager.