May 18--Fredi Gonzalez knew Monday night he was going to be fired as manager of the Atlanta Braves.
After all, his team had started the season 0-9 and was 9-28 at that point. Rumors about his job status had been going around for weeks.
And then there was the confirmation notice he received for a Tuesday afternoon flight back to Atlanta when the Braves still had three more games left in Pittsburgh.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gonzalez received an email shortly after the Braves' 8-5 loss to the Pirates on Monday that was meant to notify him of a plane reservation but actually notified him that his tenure as the team's manager was over.
He then talked to Braves officials, who confirmed that President of Baseball Operations John Hart was flying to Pittsburgh to join General Manager John Coppolella and deliver the news to Gonzalez in person, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Gonzalez did not discuss the details of his dismissal with the newspaper.
"I don't think there's a perfect time to do it," Gonzalez said of the firing. "I think you do it when they feel like the time is right, so they did it."
Gonzalez was in his sixth season as Braves manager after taking over for the retired Bobby Cox. He was 434-414 overall with the team but went 67-95 last year, and was off to a dismal start this year.
"We knew we weren't going to win 120 games [this season], but we thought would be a little bit more competitive," Gonzalez said, "and when you start the way we started, you knew there was always a possibility" of being fired.
He added: "I think if you're going to do it you do it now. If you're not going to be here [as manager] in 2017, you'd rather do it sooner than later, for me. I'm OK with that."
