The Atlanta Braves fired manager Fredi Gonzalez earlier today after an historically bad 9-28 start to the season. Gonzalez had a pretty good idea it was going to happen late last night, but not because his team just dropped its 28th loss of the season in the series opener in Pittsburgh. Having less than ten wins in mid-May might put a guy on notice, but Gonzalez knew things were really bad because he got an email Monday alerting him to his flight back to Atlanta on Tuesday. (They're not playing a one-game series in Pittsburgh.)From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
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To Gonzalez's credit, he spoke with reporters and did not badmouth the Braves for the way this was handled. Maybe because they were so helpful in taking care of his travel arrangements. Gonzalez understood that the Braves had to make a move and sounds relieved to be done worrying about when it was finally going to happen.An hour or so after the Braves' 8-5 series-opening loss to the Pirates, a person familiar with the situation said Gonzalez received an email notifying him of his scheduled flight to Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon.
That was a bad sign, since the four-game series in Pittsburgh runs through Thursday.
That sounds like a guy who's finally ready to walk away from a train wreck and maybe even happy to find out about an unexpected trip to the airport.[AJC]"I think if you're going to do it you do it now. If you're not going to be here (as manager) in 2017, you'd rather do it sooner than later, for me. I'm ok with that. It's a tough grind. Winning ballgames in the big leagues is tough when you're winning, can you imagine when you're losing and going through this?"