Frank Wren and Fredi Gonzalez Get Extensions

Braves president John Schuerholz announced this morning that general manager Frank Wren and manager Fredi Gonzalez were the latest Braves to receive contract extensions.

The length and financial terms of the extensions were not released. Both Wren and Gonzalzez were entering the final years of their previous deals.

Following edits by Ben Duronio

Both Gonzalez and Wren have received criticisms at times. Fredi's first year as manager was far from inspiring as we frequently saw him overuse relievers and at one point benched Jason Heyward for Jose Constanza. Wren has gotten the team into some difficult free agent contracts during his tenure. However, both have helped form what is a young, stable, and competitive team on an annual basis.

Wren's ability to find gems in the bullpen and savy trades are a big reason that the Braves have been playoff caliber teams of late. While it is easy to look at where he has struggled, he has made some great trades and his recent extensions give us confidence that he is the right guy for the job going forward.

Gonzalez's situation is a bit trickier, but compared to what most managers do tactically Gonzalez is kind of right there with them. He is not the most progressive manager but he also is not the most old school. It would be nice to see him utilize matchups more in the bullpen and maybe stick with starters past the arbitrary 100 pitch mark a bit more frequently, but aside from that Gonzalez is basically your standard run of the mill manager, and that's fine. The team plays hard for him and he is a likeable guy, so we do not have any qualms with him being extended. You don't get rid of managers who win division titles by 10 games.

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