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Braves to hire Alex Anthopoulos as GM

Anthopoulos served seven years as Blue Jays general manager through 2015 -- he was hired to that post at just 32 years of age -- before spending the past two seasons as Dodgers vice president of baseball operations.

He has a background in scouting but was among the first wave of young GMs to fully embrace the use of statistical analytics, and he’s known for being aggressive with trades and signings.

Anthopoulos’ hiring comes just as the GM Meetings begin Monday at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, and six weeks after John Coppolella was forced to resign as Braves GM amid a investigation by Major League Baseball into numerous alleged rules infractions by the Braves in the areas of international free agency and the draft.

The Braves’ first choice to lead their baseball operations was thought to be Dayton Moore...But Moore is still under contract and the Royals denied the Braves permission to interview him.

If Anthopoulos was a Plan B, then most baseball insiders would agree it was an impressive fallback for the Braves.

Not every move he made worked out: Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud were traded to the Mets for R.A. Dickey, and there was a relatively small return when he traded away Blue Jays icon Roy Halladay. There were also a few free-agent signings that didn’t work out.

Still, on balance Anthopoulos is regarded as bright and astute.

While the Braves currently have John Hart as president of baseball operations, Hart’s contract expires at the end of the year and it’s not believed that he’ll continue in the same position, and if he does it almost certainly won’t be with the same power as Anthopoulos is expected to have final say in baseball matters regardless of title.

Jamaaliver wrote:

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Didn't Moylan play for us already?