Frank Wren | |
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Frank Wren in January 2013
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Born |
St. Petersburg, Florida |
March 17, 1958
Education | St. Petersburg Junior College |
Occupation | baseball executive |
Spouse(s) | Terri |
Children | Jordan, Colby, Kyle |
Franklin E. Wren (born March 17, 1958 in St. Petersburg, Florida) is an American front office executive in Major League Baseball. He began his baseball career as a player for the Montreal Expos, and later joined the team as an executive. Wren moved to the Florida Marlins in 1991, then was hired by the Baltimore Orioles in 1998 for his first stint as a general manager. After the season, Wren was hired by the Atlanta Braves. The Braves promoted Wren to general manager in 2007, a role he kept until 2014. He joined the Boston Red Sox in September 2015.
Wren graduated from Northeast High School in St. Petersburg. He then attended St. Petersburg Junior College and signed with the Montreal Expos as an outfielder in 1977. In five minor league seasons, Wren batted .259 and peaked with a 38-game stint with the Double-A Memphis Chicks in 1980. He accepted a job coaching in the Expos organization in 1981 while recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor. After trying to resume his playing career in the spring of 1982, Wren became a full-time coach that June with the Jamestown Expos. He joined the front office as General Manager of Jamestown in October 1984 and was promoted to Assistant Director of Scouting in September 1985. He was named Director of Latin American Scouting in 1989.
In September 1991, Wren's boss, Expos GM Dave Dombrowski, accepted the position of GM of the Florida Marlins, a National League expansion franchise set to begin play in 1993, at which Wren followed Dombrowski to the Marlins as the club's assistant GM. By 1996, he was promoted to vice president. In 1997, the veteran-laden Marlins won the franchise's first World Series. In 1998, owner Wayne Huizenga would order his front office to divest the team of its high-priced veterans, and the Marlins spiraled into the basement of the National League East Division.