MLB: 5 Major League Managers on the Hot Seat
17. <strong>Record:</strong> 560-489 (.534) overall, 358-290 (.552) with Atlanta. Manager. Atlanta Braves. Fredi Gonzalez. 1. player
There are plenty of Atlanta Braves fans that think Fredi Gonzalez should have been fired by now but he was spared at the end of last season largely because Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox (who hired Gonzalez to coach third base in 2003) and John Schuerholz are in his corner.
After overseeing one of the worst late-season collapses in Major League history in 2011, the Braves made a quick exit in the playoffs in both 2012 and 2013 before grossly underperforming last season with a 79-83 record that cost general manager Frank Wren his job.
Now, the club is in full-on rebuilding mode and has one of the worst big league rosters in the game- especially since new GM John Hart traded Craig Kimbrel on the eve of Opening Day. Needless to say, expectations aren’t high this season.
However, that doesn’t mean Gonzalez is safe. Far from it, in fact. After all, he’s in the last year of his contract and chances of an extension are next to zero.
While Cox and Schuerholz are respected members of the organization, they can’t keep Gonzalez safe forever. The 51-year old manager has underperformed in four seasons at the helm in Atlanta and is loudly criticized within the fan base for his in-game decision-making, particularly in terms of bullpen management.
Gonzalez won’t be held under the national microscope nearly as much in 2015, but that’s not necessarily a good thing for his long-term health either.
The Braves have accelerated their rebuilding timeline in order to be competitive when Sun Trust Park, the team’s new north Atlanta stadium, opens in 2017. But if you think about it, managers don’t have a great track record of making it through to the light at the end of the tunnel of a major roster overall.
Gonzalez must only take a quick glance at his own third base coaching box at Bo Porter, who waded through the muck of a 110-190 two-year stint as the manager of the Houston Astros, most of that time filling out a Quadruple-A lineup card only to be axed once the hardest part of the roster restructuring was over.
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