Former Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was fired by the team Tuesday, May 18, 2016. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Not everyone has had the misfortune of being fired from a job. Those of us who have been are normally afforded the common courtesy of being told in-person that our employment has been terminated.
Not so with now former Atlanta Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez.
According to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gonzalez received an email Monday night confirming his flight back to Atlanta Tuesday afternoon. Gonzalez surely found this problematic, as his Braves were in the midst of a four-game road series against the Pittsburgh Pirates that was scheduled to run through Thursday.
Ruh roh, Shaggy.
O’Brien reported that Atlanta decided to part ways with Gonzalez after an 8-5 loss to Pittsburgh Monday and proceeded to book his travel accommodations for Tuesday before informing Gonzalez of the decision. Braves general manager John Coppolella and president of baseball operations John Hart confirmed Gonzalez’s dismissal and admitted they had planned to inform him Tuesday morning.
In a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gonzalez seemed to handle the news as expected despite the unceremonious circumstances.
“I don’t think there’s a perfect time to do it,” Gonzalez told the AJC. “I think you do it when they feel like the time is right, so they did it. … I will tell you this, through all this stuff, my team played hard. They busted their asses. They had to answer questions that they shouldn’t have to answer about the manager, and per man they all handled it with class, and they played their asses off.”
“You know going in that’s the business that we’re in,” Gonzalez went on to say. “We knew we weren’t going to win 120 games [this season], but we thought we would be a little bit more competitive, and when you start the way we started, you knew there was always a possibility [of being fired]. …”
The manager of Atlanta’s Triple-A Gwinnett farm team, Brian Snitker, will rule in Gonzalez’s stead for the Braves for the remainder of this season.
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