Reaction to Atlanta Braves Trade of Andrelton Simmons

Anything is possible, for the Atlanta Braves, no one appears safe. After rumors began swirling about Andrelton Simmons early yesterday morning, I have to admit, I didn’t think anything would happen, especially not this quickly. Could Braves GM John Coppolella possibly gotten more out of this deal with another team?

Perhaps, only time will tell how this trade shakes down. However, I’m reminded of a trade the Braves made not too long ago with some guy named Adam Wainwright; you just never truly know how a trade will work when prospects are involved.

A few of us here at the Take have already discussed this deal. Alan posed the question and then gave a well written article after the deed was done, highlighting the pieces the Braves received back. From a statistically driven stand point, this made absolutely no sense, but did it make baseball sense?

As I took the time to let this event digest (it wasn’t easy), I realized I was looking at this through rose colored glasses. I needed to take the emotion out of it; and that’s what I’m asking you to do as well.

I needed to look at this from a baseball perspective, and not a biased Braves fan perspective. We all know the value that Simmons holds, his defense is irreplaceable, his offense though, well, to be honest, I’m not going to miss that.

Yes, Andrelton saves A TON of runs defensively, this is no secret. BUT, he also prevented runs from scoring offensively, and that’s not really a good thing. Saving runs is fantastic, but it really doesn’t do any good when you can’t put runs on the board to counter the runs saved.

Seriously, Simmons could save 5 runs a game, but the way this offense churned out runs, it wouldn’t matter. Essentially what I’m saying is, instead of losing 1-0, 2-1, or even 4-2, opposing runs saved only held a real value if we could out score them. whether you lose by 1 or 100, it’s still a loss and Simmons was no big help in the offensive production department. We need the offense to change that, and we have the pieces to that now.

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I’m not saying that this trade is a hard pill to swallow, as a Braves fan, it most certainly is. There is a greater end state here though. It’s November 13th, just barely into Free Agency. We’re just getting in to the Hot Stove season. The Winter Meetings are still a month or so away, and we just traded the best defensive player in the game for what is now our #1 and #9 ranked team prospects.

That’s team as a whole, not just pitching prospects. All these pitchers we’ve been racking up are great, they are, it’s great to have stud pitching. Could someone ask the Mets how that worked for them? What I’m getting at is we won’t be holding on to all this pitching. One has to think, and hope, that a lot of this pitching will flip us some offense.

The problem with that, as I was enlightened by our Benjamin Chase in a Facebook post last night, “The problem is that bats are quite a bit more valuable than arms, so we’d have to move a couple of guys like Newcomb for one bat of similar prospect ranking. That’s where the issue lies.”

Basically, the Braves would have to turn the two studs we just got for a premier stick. I’m not very good at math, but I know that’s really not how you want things to unfold.

I’m not trying to make you feel one way or the other, I’m just trying to show a different angle here. The Braves felt like they had an offer they couldn’t refuse, and from a baseball standpoint, you had to make that deal. We will all miss Simmons, but we can’t dwell on this. This unfortunately, is the cruel reality of baseball as a business, as such, the risks as well.

Albies is our stud in waiting at SS. We have a very reliable bridge in Aybar, obviously his defense is not Simmons-esque, but we’ve been spoiled as Braves fans with Simmons at SS. Erick Aybar is a good SS, so it’s going to seem like a severe drop off, but he is suitable, for a year.

Next: Simmons Shipped Off to Anaheim

It’s easy to turn tail, run, and hide now, or even be angry and perturbed and the front office expects that from the fans, but they can’t run a team and make decisions based off how the fans will react or feel about it. Let’s give Coppy the benefit here and let him work. The Braves have one of the most well educated front offices in the game.

The John’s are not idiots, they know what they’re doing. As Braves fans, depending on how old you are, you’ve been through this a plethora of times and have still come out no worse for it.

David Justice, Craig Kimbrel, Jason Heyward, Ryan Klesko, Dale Murphy, and yes, even Hank Aaron have all either been traded or left via free agency. The days of players playing for one team their whole career are long gone. Becoming emotionally attached to players like this only brings heartache when things like this happen.

My generation and others remember the Braves of the late 70’s and 80’s. It was dreadful and a downright mockery. However, the Braves still were there and put out winning seasons from 1991 to 2014. So yeah, we have some perspective on how it “used to be”. If you’re a Braves fan born after 1991, you’ve never known losing until this year, and I get it. It sucks, but this to shall pass.

I learned that when I was 12 years old when Dale Murphy asked for, and was granted a trade to Philadelphia. From that point, it was never about the name on the back of the jersey anymore. What mattered was the front of the jersey.

I’m not just an Andrelton Simmons fan, I’m not just a Shelby Miller fan, I’m not just a Freddie Freeman fan, and I’m not just a Cameron Maybin fan.

I’m an Atlanta Braves fan, and that’s how it always will be.

So let’s be open-minded folks, because the fireworks may not be done.