Dansby Swanson just won his arbitration case, and that earned him an extra four million dollars after only making 6 million dollars last season. Now with Dansby’s salary at ten million dollars in the final year of his contract, Jon discussed why he thinks Dansby Swanson won’t be an Atlanta Brave next year Thursday night on The Jon Chuckery Show.
Obviously Jon doesn’t think the Braves don’t want Dansby or think there is a better shortstop up for grabs, but he believes the Braves might not fork out the cash for Swanson or get outbid for the seven-year veteran out of Vanderbilt saying “If you asked me right now what my gut says, is Dansby here or is he not here, I don’t think he’s here. I don’t think he’s going to be their shortstop. I’m not saying they’re going to go cheap on him or this, that, and the other, I think he’s going to be one of those guys that somebody is willing to overpay. I think someone’s going to offer Dansby probably even a little bit more money than probably where he should slot.”
You’re probably wondering what kind of money Dansby is slated to make this offseason. Well, Jon gave you those numbers saying “You know he’s probably somewhere in that fourteen, fifteen million dollar range, somebody may slot him higher than that.” Jon continued later by saying “I think he’s going to profile to be a fifteen, sixteen million dollar shortstop, and it becomes a question of will the Braves pay him to do that, and as I said as I sit here right now I’m just not convinced that they will fork over the cash.”
Last August the San Francisco Giants signed their shortstop Brandon Crawford, who is very similar as a player to Dansby Swanson, to a two-year thirty-two million dollar contract extension, and Jon believes the Braves could possibly bring Dansby back on a deal like that. Chuckery also acknowledges that a shortstop like Dansby Swanson who is a fifteen to thirty home run hitter, eighty to ninety RBI guy, .750 to .850 OPS guy, .275 batting average guy, and gold glove caliber shortstop doesn’t grow on trees saying “Look the reality is twenty homer, twenty steal, gold glove shortstops aren’t in numerous supply right now. There aren’t a whole bunch of those guys running around the league.”
Finally, another thing to note that Chuckery brought up about this situation is that Dansby Swanson and former teammate Freddie Freeman have the same agent, and contract talks between the Braves and Swanson have been quiet, just like the contract talks between Freeman and the Braves were, so could there still be hard feelings between the Braves and Dansby Swanson about close friend Freddie Freeman not being brought back, and could that impact contract talks?
Jon does say that he "hopes Dansby stays”, and believes Dansby would be a “fool to try to leave”. There could be a chance Swanson could take a hometown deal to stay in Atlanta since he is a local kid playing for his hometown team that is a great organization, and he is one of the faces of the franchise, but Dansby’s speed, bat, and gold glove defense are the reasons that Alex Anthopolous and the Atlanta Braves should cough up a potential sixteen million to keep Dansby Swanson in a Braves uniform.