Dansby Demoted
The flow moves down to AAA…
ATLANTA, Ga. — To the chagrin of many Braves fans and hair enthusiasts across the Southeast, Braves SS Dansby Swanson has been demoted to Triple-A Gwinnett.
After mostly riding pine for Atlanta since the All-Star Break, Swanson will now get regular at-bats in Gwinnett, teaming up with another highly-touted Braves infield prospect, 2B Ozzie Albies.
But let’s not bury the lede here: this was a move a long time coming. Swanson hit well to close out the 2016 season, posting a .302 BA and .803 OPS over 38 games. Before the 2017 season, he was hyped as part of the Braves’ youth movement as they moved to SunTrust Park and as a contender for Rookie of the Year, even if the Braves weren’t going to contend for the playoffs. But here we are almost a year later: the Braves are only 8.5 games back of the NL’s second Wild Card spot and are looking to give the entrenched Rockies a run for their money to bookend the season, but Swanson has hit .213 with a .599 OPS in 2017. He has struggled at the plate this year and the Braves shunting him into a backup role with the rise of Johan Camargo hasn’t helped. Especially worrying are stats like this, from Braves beat writer Mark Bowman:
Like Bowman has stated before on Twitter, Swanson needs the consistent at-bats and to build his confidence back up. The Braves flubbed a little bit by pulling him up to the majors from Double-A, and while he was a force to be reckoned with to cap off 2016, he just hasn’t been working out at the plate this season. I wish I understood Sabermetrics enough to give you some numbers to quantify how bad Dansby has been at the plate, but from watching Braves games all season, you can just see the frustration painted across his face after every strikeout. This is one heck of a sophomore slump, to say the least.
But there is hope for Swanson; with the Braves intent on making him a part of a successful future full of playoff series and postseason whimsy, this is just a bump in the road for him. Even if he sits in Triple-A for the rest of the season, he will be back in the majors soon and hitting like he did to end 2016. It’s only a matter of time.
