Well, we finally have the answer as to whether or not the Atlanta Braves will find a way to bring back Dansby Swanson. Unfortunately, the Braves will indeed have to find a new shortstop for 2023 and beyond.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now as there has been seemingly no traction between Atlanta and Dansby in terms of a long-term deal and the market exploded with guys getting 10+ year deals. The Braves were never going to mess around in those waters and the Cubs, who play in a bad division and need to make a splash, decided to give Dansby a seven year deal where he will get north of $25 million a year.
More Braves News
Our Braves prospect ranking rollout is taking a break today (Sunday) before resuming on Monday, but if you want to get caught up, here are prospects 21-25 that we revealed yesterday. This section is surprisingly position player heavy with multiple guys with some real upside.
Finally, we like to highlight positive stories where we can and one such story is Ronald Acuna Jr. donating his winter league salary and award winnings to local charities in Venezuela. Good on Ronnie to help out needy children in his hometown.
MLB News
Dansby signing with the Cubs was the biggest baseball news from yesterday, but it was a relatively busy day overall. Andrew Benintendi, who has been a popular target amongst Braves fans for left field, ended up signing a five year, $75 million deal with the White Sox. Benintendi is certainly interesting, but the Braves were never going to go that long for him.
JD Martinez is a name that just a few years ago was near the top of free agent rankings and was looking to command big time dollars. Unfortunately, Father Time has caught up with him a bit as we saw his power output drop off in Boston and he hit free agency yet again. This time, he had to settle for a one year deal with the Dodgers worth $10 million.