Yesterday the Braves hired Ron Washington to be their third base coach. This after interviewing him to be their manager yet passing on him to name interim manager Brian Snitker on a full time basis.
This, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle notes, has led to “raised eyebrows among baseball officials.” Why? Because Washington was still employed as the Oakland Athletics’ third base coach. Teams, as a general rule, do not give permission to other teams to interview their employees for lateral moves. They only do that when the interview is for a promotion. In this case the A’s allowed the Braves to interview Washington to be the manager, not to allow them to poach their third base coach.
Shea suggests that other clubs may be hesitant to grant the Braves permission to interview their employees in the future. Given all the new hires it’s not something that will likely come up for a while, at least for top positions, but it’s definitely a curious development.
