The Braves have a history of not looking great distances for their next manager. The words “national search” must not appear in their executive handbook. In 1988, then-general manager Bobby Cox fired Chuck Tanner and promoted Russ Nixon from the minors. A little more than two years later, he fired Nixon and rode the elevator downstairs to the dugout. Then Cox retired and Fredi Gonzalez, a Cox protégé, out of work and living in Atlanta, was hired.
Even the Braves’ last two general managers (Frank Wren and John Coppolella) were promoted from within. (John Hart, buddy to Schuerholz, was lured off the golf course and brought in as an adviser and a steady hand for Coppolella, and the three in concert blew it up.