After failing to get permission to interview Moore, ‘old guard’ preferred Anthopoulos, per report

There were no shortage of stories that connected the Atlanta Braves’ front office vacancy to Dayton Moore, the Royals general manager with strong Braves ties including to John Schuerholz. Many thought that a deal would get done assuming Moore was going to be given authority over all matters related to baseball and if the money was right. However, Moore has remained loyal to the Glass family who own the Royals and the Braves were denied permission to even interview him.

Despite some local writers, notably including Bill Shanks, fervently declaring that Dayton Moore was still going to end up being the Braves and even going so far as to call for John Hart’s ouster to seemingly allow that to happen, the Braves have been fairly quietly interviewing other candidates for the job with varying degrees of autonomy necessary to acquire their services. While the Braves did love Moore, their choice became clear.

As the choices came down to Jim Hendry and Anthopoulos, there were reports that some of the old Braves guard that preferred Hendry. However, it appears that Bowman’s report at least partially disputes that and shows a certain amount of solidarity in the Braves organization that they got the best guy for the job (among those who actually had permission to interview at the very least).

It is unclear who favored AA and who favored Hendry, but it is clear that the decision-makers at the top ultimately preferred Anthopoulos enough to give him authority over baseball operations. This also will result in a diminished role for John Hart as he will serve more as a consultant and figurehead going forward.