Blue Jays former GM to be hired by Atlanta Braves

Former Toronto Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos will leave his post as the Vice President of Baseball Operations with the Los Angeles Dodgers to take over the helm as General Manager with the Atlanta Braves replacing John Coppolella.

Initially, it was rumoured that Dayton Moore of the Kansas City Royals was the front-runner for the position with the Braves, however, Alex Anthopoulos emerged as a secondary option in the last couple of days. The 40-year old Anthopoulos has spent the past two seasons with the Dodgers.

Anthopoulos will take over a struggling Braves team that hasn’t finished over .500 since the 2013 season. However, the farm system is rich with prospects even though they are still embroiled in an MLB investigation surrounding the signing practices of the former General Manager.

The native of Monreal spent six seasons as the Toronto Blue Jays General Manager leading the club to the postseason in 2015, however, Anthopoulos and the Jays decided to part ways when the Mark Shapiro era began.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the formal announcement will in all likelihood come at the GM Meetings.

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Anthopoulos was a fan favourite north of the border and is best remembered for the Josh Donaldson acquisition in 2014 where he landed the MVP from Oakland in exchange for Brett Lawrie, Franklin Barreto, Kendall Graveman and Sean Nolin.

The “Silent Assasin” never shied away from pulling the trigger on the big deal when it came to attempting to better his club. A.A. pulled off the huge 12-player mega-deal with the Miami Marlins in 2012 that saw the Blue Jays land Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio. Anthopoulos also negotiated a 10-player deal when he acquired pitcher J.A. Happ from the Houston Astros as well.

His most scrutinized trade is arguably the R.A. Dickey deal that sent Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud to the New York Mets. At the time of the trade, it made sense but that one has stung as Syndergaard has evolved into one of the games best power arms.

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Anthopoulos will definitely put his fingerprint on the Braves product on the field as the GM is very hands on. Best of luck in Atlanta A.A., a well-deserved promotion for the likable Canuck.