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The Dodgers lost another key member of their front office, with vice president of baseball operations Alex Anthopolous set to join the Braves as general manager, first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post. and confirmed by several others.
Anthopoulos was general manager of the Blue Jays for six seasons before joining the Dodgers in 2016. He worked closely with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi during the last two years.
The announcement came on Monday for Atlanta, who saw John Coppolella resign amid an MLB investigation for circumventing international signing rules.
Confirmed Alex Anthopoulos will be named Braves GM. Though he won’t have the title, Anthopoulos will also likely handle the president of baseball ops duties
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) November 13, 2017
Atlanta gave Anthopoulos a four-year contract through 2021.
“We chose Alex because he is of the highest character and has a wealth of MLB leadership experience,” said Braves CEO Terry McGuirk. “He is one of the elite baseball executives in our industry and is the perfect person to lead us to a World Series."
Anthopolous was one of several former general managers in the Dodgers front office. Another one, senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes, also interviewed for the Braves GM job, per both Sherman and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.
When he was hired in 2016, Anthopoulos mentioned the Dodgers’ front office depth as a reason he decided to join the team.
“I look at it as talented baseball guys who are here, and that’s part of the appeal. All these guys come from different backgrounds and experiences,” Anthopoulos said when he was hired by Los Angeles. “I respect those guys so much. It’s really exciting for me because I do think it’s a great fit, and I think I’m going to improve myself being with them day in and day out.”
In addition to losing Anthopolous, the Dodgers also saw director of player development Gabe Kapler leave to manage the Phillies, and assistant director of player development Jeremy Zoll leave to run the Twins minor league system.
The Dodgers plan to hire both a director of player development and an assistant.
“It’s a significant position in our front office. We’re starting the process of culling names from external candidates, and we have some people internally as well,” Friedman said last week. “We’re not going to rush it, how significant the role is.”
The MLB general managers meetings start Monday in Orlando, Fla.