A lot of Braves fans are split on bringing Dansby Swanson back, and a lot of it is going to depend on price. At the end of the day, there are potential better options on the market for the same price, and the Braves and Swanson seem to be somewhat apart on a number. FanGraphs ranked their Top 50 Free Agents, and they had Swanson clocking in at #8:
For comparison, they predict
Correa – 8/$240M
Turner – 7/$210M
Bogaerts – 6/$168M— Stephen (@b_outliers) November 7, 2022
As you can see, their predictions would land Swanson much lower in terms of AAV compared to the other options on the board. Turner ranks 2nd, Correa ranks 3rd, and Bogaerts clocks in at 6th on their list. They’re just predictions right now, but if those are what the numbers would look like, I would prefer Turner or to keep Dansby. We’ll have to see; we know Alex Anthopoulos will be kicking the tires and leaving no stone unturned. Next up is Jansen, who FanGraphs has fetching a one year, $10 million contract:
The Dodgers slow-walking a potential Jansen return in the wake of the Freddie Freeman signing led their longtime closer to choose the reigning world champions instead on a one-year, $16 million deal. The move worked out better for Jansen than for the Dodgers given the struggles of replacement Craig Kimbrel. Though not as dominant as in his heyday, the big righty led the NL with 41 saves (in 48 attempts) while pitching to a 3.38 ERA and 3.21 FIP. Building on his 2021 resurgence, he again mixed sinkers (22.5%) and sliders (13.1%) with his signature cutter (64.4%). The result was a 32.7% strikeout rate, his highest since 2017, and an 8.5% walk rate, down 4.4 points from ‘21. His 1.13 homers per nine more than doubled his 2021 rate, but while his 7.3% barrel, 87.1 mph average exit velocity and 32.5% hard-hit rate set or approached his Statcast-era highs, his 2.34 xERA speaks to the balance of his contact vs. non-contact abilities.
Even with Raisel Iglesias under contract, the Braves have indicated a desire to retain Jansen. We’ll see if that outweighs the pull of a potential return to “California Love.
Jansen ranks 44th on their list. At that price tag, I would love to have him back and think the Braves would be very interested.
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Photographer: Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire
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