Fansided

John Schuerholz stepping aside as team president of Braves

By John Buhler

ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 27: Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz is shown before the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Turner Field on September 27, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 27: Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz is shown before the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Turner Field on September 27, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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John Schuerholz will step aside as team president of the Atlanta Braves, effective immediately, a role he has served in for the better part of a decade.

In an exclusive interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Braves chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk announced Thursday that former team general manager and team president John Schuerholz will step aside from his role with the Atlanta, effective immediately.

Schuerholz has been in Major League Baseball for the last 50 years, working most notably for the Baltimore Orioles, the Kansas City Royals, and Braves organization. Schuerholz originally came to Atlanta in 1990 to partner up with manager Bobby Cox.

Together as general manager and skipper, the Braves went on to have unprecedented success on the diamond, winning 14 straight division titles, playing in five World Series in the 1990s (1991-92, 1995-96, 1999), and winning Atlanta’s only professional championship to date in the 1995 World Series over the American League’s Cleveland Indians.

Schuerholz’s 25+ years with the Braves featured 18 trips to the postseason, three coming after he moved from general manager to team president in 2007. The Team of the 90’s were arguably the most competitive team in baseball from 1991 to 2014.

However not every dynasty can last forever. Atlanta lost 95 games in 2015 and the Braves are almost certainly going to miss the NL Postseason again in 2016 with their rebuilding roster. Atlanta has had all eyes ahead on fielding a competitive roster in 2017 when the Braves play in brand new SunTrust Park.

To counterbalance Schuerholz’s departure from day-to-day operations with the Braves (keep in mind that he is 75 years old), McGuirk will promote two men in the organization to presidency positions. Derek Schiller will become president of business, while Mike Plant will become president of development.

Over the last two years, the Braves have been in a bit of transition in the front office since firing former general manager Frank Wren after the disastrous 2014 MLB campaign. Schuerholz brought in former MLB general manager John Hart to become president of baseball operations. Wren’s top assistant in the general manager department John Coppolella would be groomed for the general manager role in 2015, taking over full-time in 2016.

While Schuerholz is certainly a Cooperstown-bound executive as one of the primary architects of the Braves dynasty in the 1990s to mid-2000s, it seems that it is an end of an era in the Atlanta front office. It seems that the Braves clearly had a succession plan for when Schuerholz decided to step aside in some capacity in the organization he once proudly built from a joke in the National League to one of the most successful franchises in baseball the last 25 years.

Expect more moves in 2016 for Atlanta to better align the club both in the front office and on the field for when the Braves begin play at SunTrust Park in 2017. While Cooperstown hasn’t happened yet for Schuerholz, he will be enshrined in the Braves Hall of Fame this summer with former sensational center fielder Andruw Jones.

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