Braves hire Anthopoulos as GM
ATLANTA — The remake of the Atlanta Braves’ management was completed Monday when Alex Anthopoulos was named general manager and John Hart was removed as team president. Anthopoulos, a former Dodgers and Blue Jays executive, will have autonomy of baseball operations, giving him more power than any Braves general manager since John Schuerholz served from 1990 to 2007.
Anthopoulos also was given the title of executive vice-president, while Hart will assume a senior adviser role.
Anthopoulos was to fly to Orlando on Monday night to represent the Braves at baseball’s general managers’ meetings. He spent the last two seasons as the Dodgers’ vice-president of baseball operations after six years as Toronto’s general manager. Anthopoulos succeeds John Coppolella, who was forced to resign as general manager on Oct. 2 after an investigation by Major League Baseball disclosed rule violations committed by the Braves in the international player market.
Anthopoulos said the Braves, who opened SunTrust Park in 2017 and whose minor league organization was named the best in the game by Baseball America, are “one of the premier jobs in all of sports.”
“The young talent here is as good as you’re going to get in the game, and even here at the big league level, you have some exciting players as well,” he said. “The opportunity here, the upside, is through the roof.”
Anthopoulos began his baseball career with the Montreal Expos as a publicity intern before moving to scouting for three years. He joined Toronto after the 2003 season as a scouting coordinator and earned a promotion to VP of baseball operations and assistant GM in 2006 before taking over as GM.