So long as Dansby Swanson remains unsigned, Alex Anthopoulos is going to get stopped around town asking where things stand.
One particular interaction stood out to the Braves general manager.
With the top three shortstops off the board, Swanson is now the top free agent at the position. A Georgia native who spent his entire career in the Braves organization, a return to Atlanta is very much on the table for Swanson, but there are other suitors.
Anthopoulos said it’s fairly common to have people stop him and ask if Swanson is coming back. But when he took his daughter to a local ice skating rink, it was a young patron who stopped him.
Turns out, she’s a big Swanson fan.
“This young girl comes up to me and has a sweatshirt on and there’s this big photo of Dansby’s face, like the whole thing,” Anthopoulos said Tuesday in an appearance on “The Steakhouse.” "On top of it it says ‘All I want for Christmas is.’ And this is early in the afternoon so I’m like you know what, I’ve got to send this to him. I told her I’m gonna send this to him and she’s totally hysterical. …
“I took a photo and I sent it to him. And when I talked to him, he actually told me he was at Home Depot or one of those spots, but someone came up to him and said hey did you see this photo, I think it was the mother, I forget what he told me. But someone basically brought up the fact that the photo and this and that. Obviously, what goes around comes around, but that’s probably the one that jumps out.”
So now Anthopoulos has the unenviable pressure of a child’s Christmas happiness hinging on bringing Swanson back.
Anthopoulos did say when he sent the photo to Swanson, the shortstop zinged him.
"I will say this: He had a great line," Anthopoulos said. "He said 'We all know she got that out of your closet.' Pretty good."
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