The Atlanta Braves were eliminated from the playoffs over the weekend by the Philadelphia Phillies and now the offseason questions begin for the team as star shortstop Dansby Swanson will be a free agent. Dukes & Bell talked about his impending free agency, what he could cost the team and should they go after a star free agent pitcher instead?
Dukes talked about why he thinks Swanson will return to the Braves.
“I think for him it means more, I’m not gonna say it means more, because it meant as much to Freddie you saw that response, legacy matters in baseball. When you win chips and you were the guy on a team that was the centerpiece or one of the centerpieces that is legacy,” Dukes said. “And I think that matters to Dansby, does it matter to him to get maybe $5 million less than what he might get on the open market? Maybe, I believe it does.”
Bell said he would let Swanson walk if it meant the team could sign another top tier starting pitcher.
“He’s the leader, his leadership in the clubhouse, what he means in the clutch, again there’s a lot of guys in the hall of fame that had some awful series in the playoffs, Mike Schmidt comes to mind so Dansby’s not defined by it,” Bell said. “Everything here is in place, the only thing I would argue is if you do have Vaughn Grissom and once again we came up short in pitching I would love to go after the best arms available, I would like to get Jacob deGrom in here and I would let Dansby go in favor of deGrom.”