ATLANTA -- Braves president of operations John Hart knew he'd spend the first week of the offseason deciding on manager Brian Snitker's future and evaluating his coaching staff. His to-do list grew much longer on Monday, when John Coppolella was forced to resign as general manager because of a significant infraction committed on the international market.
With Coppolella gone, Hart now must oversee and handle more of the daily responsibilities in a front office full of new faces.
"We won't miss a beat going forward," Hart said while trying to remain optimistic during the early stages of an unenviable development.
Throughout most of the past three seasons, Hart has leaned on Coppolella and Billy Ryan to serve as the daily leaders within the operations department.
Because of an internal struggle, Coppolella opted to remove Ryan from daily responsibilities in August and make him a special assistant, who does most of his work away from the stadium.
After Ryan was reassigned, the Braves lured Adam Fisher away from the Mets to serve as assistant general manager and hired former Blue Jays employee Perry Minasian to oversee their scouting effort as the director of player personnel.
While Fisher and Minasian both have experience, they didn't join the Braves until Sept. 19 and are still somewhat unfamiliar with the organization as a whole.
Hart has repeatedly stressed he plans to stay with the organization. If this proves to be true, thoughts of Royals senior vice president and general manager Dayton Moore returning to Atlanta will likely evaporate, as Moore's best fit with the Braves would be to serve as the president of baseball operations and oversee a general manager.
Moore has remained a favorite of the players, coaches and executives who had the opportunity to work with him before he left the Braves to become the Royals general manager in 2006.
Until a replacement is found, Hart will handle the GM responsibilities for the Braves. His first order of business was to meet with Snitker, who is waiting to learn whether his option for the 2018 season will be exercised.
There is a growing sentiment Snitker will be brought back as the Braves manager. This could influence whether the club sticks to its plan to make at least one change to the coaching staff. Bench coach Terry Pendleton, first-base coach Eddie Perez and pitching coach Chuck Hernandez have been mentioned as the most likely to be affected by any potential changes.