ATLANTA -- The Braves announced several changes to their medical staff on Wednesday afternoon, headlined by Gary Lourie's promotion to head team physician. Lourie has served as an associate physician on the Braves' medical staff since 2000. He will fill the role previously held by Norman Elliott, who is among a group of the team's former physicians who will no longer be part of the medical staff.
Joe Chandler, the beloved physician who received credit from former pitchers Tom Glavine and John Smoltz during their Hall of Fame speeches, has not yet decided whether he'll accept the Braves' invitation to continue serving as their director of medical services emeritus.
Marvin Royster, Tim Griffith, Jeff Hoadley and Brooks Lide are among the team physicians who will remain on the team's medical staff. The new physicians added to the staff are John Xerogeanes, Spero Karas, Kyle Hammond, Ken Mautner, Lee Kneer, Jeff Webb and Jonathan Kim.
The Braves also announced Bradford Scott has been promoted to head sports performance coach, and Jordan Wolf has been lured away from the Padres to take the performance therapist role, which Scott handled last year.
Both Scott and Wolf will handle some duties previously assigned to former strength and conditioning coach Phil Falco, who was not retained at the end of the 2016 season.