The rumors about the firing of Atlanta Braves GM Frank Wren proved to be true:

The Atlanta Braves fired general manager Frank Wren on Monday, less than 24 hours after being eliminated from the NL playoff race.

The move was announced by team president John Schuerholz, who scheduled a news conference at Turner Field.

Schuerholz has named former major league executive and MLB Network analyst John Hart as the team’s interim general manager. In addition, the Braves formed a three-person team to conduct the search for a new general manager, which will include Schuerholz, Hart and retired Braves manager Bobby Cox.

The focus is on the big bust contracts:

While the Braves made the playoffs three times with Wren, he drew heavy criticism for the big-money contracts of second baseman Dan Uggla and center fielder B.J. Upton.

Uggla was released in July, even though he was still owed $13 million this season and the next. Upton is looking like one of the biggest free-agent busts in baseball history, with three more years remaining on a $75.25 million, five-year contract. The outfielder was hitting .207 with 11 homer and 34 RBIs, which is actually an improvement on his first year with Atlanta.

Pitching injuries hurt the Braves a great deal this season, and I’m not sure how much the GM can be held responsible for those. It’s quite possible that with the great young staff on the mound, the Braves make the playoffs and Wren keeps his job.

As for Uggla and Upton, Uggla’s career went south very quickly, and I’m not sure Wren should have seen that coming. His OBP dropped his first year with the Braves, but he hit for power. His OBP bounced back his second year with the Braves, but his power dropped. Everything disappeared after that. Upton just never matured into a good offensive player, and a .298 OBP in this age 27 season should have been a huge red flag. Truthfully, someone in the organization should have been screaming, “Stop!” at that point.