Braves GM: 'There is a method to this madness'

As the Atlanta Braves continue to clean house, general manager John Coppolella attests it's all within reason.

"There is a method to this madness," Coppolella told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. "Judge our trades in two to three years. Not now."

The Braves front office has parted ways with Craig Kimbrel, Evan Gattis, Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, and, most recently, Andrelton Simmons over the last 12 months and are coming off a 67-win season - their lowest mark since 1990.

While the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs have prospered from appearing to tank in order to build up a strong young core, Coppolella argues the Braves' main goal is to win now, and in the future.

"We want to win, don't think anybody wants to lose. It's painful," he said. "But we had one bad season, not three of four years.

"If we truly were going to tank, we wouldn't have had (Erick) Aybar come back in the (Simmons) trade. If we were trying to tank, we wouldn't have signed A.J. Pierzynski. If we were trying to tank, we would have traded (Cameron) Maybin at the deadline last year, and we had plenty of offers.

"We want to win. And we will win. I'm not under any delusions that we'll win 110 games, but we're not going to lose 95 games again. We will win more games than we did last year."

Though it hurt to part ways with several key pieces of a Braves organization that's reached the postseason twice in the last four years, the front office does have something to show for it. Prospects Sean Newcomb, Touki Toussaint, Tyrell Jenkins, Manny Banuelos, Max Fried, Chris Ellis, and Rio Ruiz were all acquired in the past year and rank within the top 10 of the organizations best prospects.

"To us, it's just like five years ago when the Royals traded away Zack Greinke. Everyone was saying, 'What are they doing? How can you trade a 27-year-old Cy Young winner?' Well, how did that work out for them?" Coppolella said.

The Royals received Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain as part of the deal, two integral pieces to their World Series title.