Braves Fire Manager Fredi Gonzalez After 9-28 Start

by Pablo MenaMay 18, 2016, 2:25 pmNews, Opinion >

The Atlanta Braves, who are on track for the worst season in the team’s 130-year history, have fired manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Braves Fire Manager Fredi Gonzalez After 9-28 Start

Gonzalez will be replaced on an interim basis by Class AAA manager Brian Snitker.

Gonzalez, 52, has managed the Braves for over five years and led them to the 2013 National League East title and a 2012 wild-card game appearance, but was ultimately incapable of doing much to rebuild a project the past two seasons as the club gears up for a move into a new, suburban stadium in 2017. The Braves are currently off to a 9-28 start and a .243 winning percentage that puts them on course for the worst season in franchise history since the 1935 Boston Braves finished 38-115 (.248).

Prior to managing the Braves, Gonzalez managed the Florida Marlins from 2007 to 2010, and was a third base coach for the Braves from 2003-2006.

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His termination ends an era of great managerial instability, as Gonzalez took over in 2011 for the retired Bobby Cox, who managed the Braves from 1991 to 2010– a period during which the team reached the playoffs 15 times, won five NL pennants and took the 1995 World Series.

Snitker, 60, played four minor league seasons as a catcher and has spent 34 years with the Braves as a minor league manager and coach and as a major league bullpen coach from 1988-90. The team will begin its search for a permanent replacement as it prepares for the 2017 opening of SunTrust Park in Cobb County, Atlanta.

“I want to be part of this when we get good,” Gonzalez recently told USA TODAY Sports. “But the fans are into the winning and losing business. They want to win. What’s the old saying, ‘Don’t tell me about the pain, show me the baby?’

“Well, we can’t show you the baby right now, but we sure are feeling the pain.”

Gonzalez is the first Braves manager to get fired since Russ Nixon in 1990. Cox took over midseason and in 1991, the Braves began a run of 14 consecutive playoff showings.

MIAMI, FL – APRIL 16: Manager Fredi Gonzalez #33 of the Atlanta Braves smiles during batting practice before the Braves played against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on April 16, 2016 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Skipper/Getty Images)