Braves fire Fredi Gonzalez after 9-28 start, to name Brian Snitker interim manager

The Atlanta Braves, on track for the worst season in the franchise's 130-year history, have fired manager Fredi Gonzalez.

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

Gonzalez, 52, managed the Braves to the 2013 National League East title and a 2012 wild-card game appearance, but could do little to prop up a rebuilding project the past two seasons as the club gears up for a move into a new, suburban stadium in 2017. The Braves are off to a 9-28 start, and their .243 winning percentage puts them on course for the worst season in club history since the 1935 Boston Braves finished 38-115 (.248).

The firing ends a period of great managerial stability, as Gonzalez took over in 2011 for the retired Bobby Cox, who managed the Braves from 1991 to 2010, a span in which the club reached the playoffs 15 times, won five NL pennants and the 1995 World Series.

Snitker, 60, played four minor league seasons as a catcher and has spent 34 years in the Braves organization, as a minor league manager and coach and a major league bullpen coach from 1988-90. The club is expected to launch a search for a permanent replacement as it gears up for the 2017 opening of SunTrust Park in Cobb County.

The rebuilding process for that move from Turner Field accelerated the past two seasons, as general manager John Coppolella dealt away key parts like shortstop Andrelton Simmons, pitcher Shelby Miller, outfielder Justin Upton and closer Craig Kimbrel. The prospect return in those deals galvanized the Braves' system, but made competing at the major league level a near-impossible task.

"I want to be part of this when we get good," Gonzalez told Paste BN Sports recently. "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 appearances.

Contributing: Bob Nightengale