After one of the coldest starts to a season a player can endure, Atlanta Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson has been the teams’ best player for a month.
Since becoming the starting shortstop for the Atlanta Braves at the end of the 2016 season, fans have experienced the rollercoaster ride that is Dansby Swanson.
He began the 2022 season on one of the worst cold stretches we’ve seen.
Through the first 12 games he was slashing .143/.217/.238 with 20 strikeouts to just 4 walks. And it felt a lot worse than that as he looked completely lost at the plate.
Since then he is batting .315 (35/111) with 4 home runs and has raised his on-base percentage to .331.
He’s been the team’s best player in May. Outside of Ronald Acuna Jr., Orland Arica, and William Contreras — who have played far fewer games — Swanson leads the Braves in May in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS.
Swanson is also tied with William Contreras with 5 home runs in May, and is one hit and one run scored behind Ozzie Albies for the month.
And that doesn’t even begin to show just how valuable he’s been defensively where he’s saved Braves pitchers a ton of runs.
As for that stellar defense:
— Grant McAuley (@grantmcauley) May 26, 2022
Dansby Swanson leads National League defenders (all positions) with 6 outs above average. 4 runs above average, and a 6.4 DEF according to Fangraphs. #Braves. https://t.co/7oWQCNiJpd
Looking at his Baseball Savant page, he’s average or better in every category except K% and whiff%. Those are two areas you’d love to see him make improvements in, but you can live with it a lot more when he’s on a hot streak like this.
When you combine his elite defense with the offensive production he’s displayed over the last month, and it’s not crazy to say that Dansby has been the best player on this Braves team this season.
In fact, when you look at WAR on FanGraphs, he has the highest WAR of any Braves this season at 1.9.
That’s higher than Max Fried who is at 1.5. And the second highest position player is Travis d’Arnaud at 1.0.
During a time when pretty much every Braves hitter has been in a slump, Dansby has tried to pick up the slack.
Will it last — I certainly hope so. But history tells us a cold streak is coming. In the meantime, just sit back and enjoy the ride.