Braves fire GM Frank Wren; John Hart to take over on interim basis

Less than 24 hours after being eliminated from postseason contention, the Atlanta Braves made a significant change within their front office, firing general manager Frank Wren.

Wren took over as general manager in 2007 and helped lead the Braves to three postseason appearances and one division title throughout his tenure with the club. The veteran executive helped broker long-term extensions with several of the club's core players last winter, including Freddie Freeman, Andrelton Simmons and Craig Kimbrel, but the Braves fell short of the postseason in 2014 amid a dearth of offense.

The club also fired Bruce Manno, who has held the position of assistant general manager since shortly after Wren assumed control of the club in 2007.

The Braves consequently established a search committee comprised of Hart, team president John Schuerholz, and Hall-of-Fame manager Bobby Cox to determine who will replace Wren as the club's next permanent general manager.

"The three of us will be charged with finding the new baseball operations leadership team that will take this organization to higher and greater ground, and I couldn't be more comfortable to have these two gentlemen working with me and on behalf of our organization to put in place the finest baseball operations organization ever seen in MLB," Schuerholz said during a news conference at Turner Field. "I'm confident we'll get that done. We have a big job ahead of us. We're prepared to do it."

Hart, incidentally, is expected to serve as mentor to assistant general manager John Coppolella, who's among the most highly-regarded young executives in baseball and could be a candidate to take over as full-time general manager.

"The Braves are a gold-standard franchise," Hart said. "Always have been. I've been in professional baseball over 40 years and certainly have great respect for what the Braves do.

"Our conversations, although we have had very little to this point, are going to be about building this back the right way. We have plenty of time to take a look at what works, what we like -- and there are a lot of things to like here and there are a lot of things that are working."