As the Atlanta Braves look to build a championship team this offseason, there are a couple of items internally that need to be settled.
Obviously, the biggest item for the Atlanta Braves this offseason has to be coming to an agreement on a contract extension for Freddie Freeman. It’s vital that he never wears another jersey in his career.
I feel pretty confident that will get done, and maybe even pretty soon, but I think they should also consider getting Dansby Swanson on board for a while as well.
We’ve talked about the past two seasons how it was time for Dansby to show us just what kind of player he’s going to be.
Granted 2020 was a small sample size, but I think he proved that he’s the shortstop of the future.
Swanson played in all 60 games this past season and slashed .274/.345/.464 with 10 home runs, 49 runs scored, and an OPS of .809.
His .350 BABIP during the regular season indicates that perhaps he was a little lucky. But if you watch all the games you know Dansby is actually the most unlucky hitter on the planet. It seems like he’s robbed of at least one hit every night.
The fact is, the just hit the ball really hard in 2020 with a hard-hit rate of 40 percent and a barrel percentage of 11.4, which was by far a career-high.
Not only did Dansby prove himself at the plate, but he was a finalist for the Gold Glove award at shortstop. And if the media didn’t hype Javy Baez so much, I think he actually could have won the award.
Still, after a down year defensively in 2019 from his 2018 level, he once again showed that he can be a plus defender at the most important position defensively.
Do I think Dansby Swanson is a top five shortstop in the game — no. But do I think he’s someone that can help lead this team to a World Series — without a doubt.
I think this team needs someone like Dansby in there who has a track record of being a winner and someone who you know is going to come through in those clutch spots.
He has two more arbitration years left before he becomes a free agent, so it’s the perfect time for the Braves to try and extend him.
But maybe Dansby wants to test free agency when he’s 28 years old and bet on himself. I have a feeling he’d be on board with sticking around in Atlanta though.
Hopefully the Braves can lock him and Freeman up for at least five more seasons. That means we’d have Freeman, Swanson, Acuna, Albies, Soroka, and Fried on the books through 20205 … wow.