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Report: Braves eye Coppolella, Moore

MLB, Atlanta Braves

John Hart reportedly won't be the next general manager of the Atlanta Braves.

Sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday that Hart, 66, has declined the Braves' offer to be their new GM, instead choosing to remain with the team as its top adviser rather than committing himself to a job with such significant time demands.

The Braves now have turned to current assistant general manager John Coppolella and Kansas City Royals GM Dayton Moore to fill the position vacated when the team fired Frank Wren last month, Yahoo! Sports reported.

Braves president John Schuerholz, in an email to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution later Wednesday, refuted the report, saying: "At best the article was not accurate with either the facts or the assumptions."

Coppolella is considered by many a rising star in the industry, and if Hart had accepted the full-time GM job, it was believed it was to groom the 35-year-old to eventually take over.

Moore's Royals, meanwhile, are one win from clinching the AL pennant after taking a 3-0 AL Championship Series lead over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Braves have yet to speak with Moore and have doubts he would leave Kansas City.

Another potential candidate, according to the website, is Dan O'Dowd, who resigned earlier this month after 15 seasons as general manager of the Colorado Rockies.

As for Hart, the Braves offered him the GM job last month, and he told Schuerholz he needed to give the offer serious thought before deciding whether to accept it.

Hart, a former major league executive and MLB Network analyst, took over as the interim general manager when Wren was fired. He previously served as GM of the Texas Rangers and the Cleveland Indians.

The Braves formed a three-person team of Schuerholz, Hart and retired Braves manager Bobby Cox to conduct the search for a new GM.

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