Braves name John Hart president of baseball operations

The Braves have completed their general manager search by promoting John Hart to president of baseball operations and signing him to a three-year extension, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. As Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports reported back in September, the Braves offered their permanent general manager job to Hart after firing Frank Wren.

Hart, 66, previously served as the general manager of the Indians (1991-2001) and Rangers (2002-2005) and worked for the Braves as a senior advisor for baseball operations under Wren last season. He has also worked for MLB Network as an analyst over the past couple of seasons, but now will be back in a front office on a full-time basis.

As David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, the Braves will not hire someone to become their general manager under Hart, and assistant general manager John Coppolella will take some responsibilities of the general manager under the new structure. Coppolella, who was rumored to be a candidate for the team's lead baseball operations position, will not have his title changed and will instead work as Hart's partner.

Hart's permanent hiring puts an end to the rumor that Royals' general manager Dayton Moore would leave Kansas City to come back to Atlanta, which has been speculated by many in the wake of Wren's firing. Moore worked for the Braves from 1994 to 2006, and is credited with building the Royals team that is currently battling the Giants in the World Series.