“Business is business, man.” That’s one of the underlying thoughts of Dansby Swanson as he mulls what will lie ahead of him in free agency, including a potential return to the Atlanta Braves.
Dansby Swanson talks about his thought process entering the offseason and a potential reunion with the Atlanta Braves
Speaking on Dukes & Bell on 92.9 The Game in Atlanta, Swanson was asked about a return to the Atlanta Braves for the 2023 campaign. This season, the 28-year-old Swanson earned his first-ever Gold Glove and trip to the All-Star Game, both milestones that are part of what was a banner season that could earn him a big contract as part of a stellar class of shortstop free agents.
So going back to Atlanta would be the easy thing to do, right? Swanson pumped the brakes on his decision being anything but easy.
“Business is business, man. It’s not always the fun part about the game,” Swanson said in an interview you can hear here. “I wish it was just one plus one, but it never seems to be that way.”
Swanson enters the offseason with a baseline idea (possible six years and $140 million, and here’s why) swirling of what it might take for the Braves to keep him. However, he also saw first-hand some of the issues that arose last offseason as Atlanta tried to keep Freddie Freeman in what turned into an emotional back-and-forth as Freeman left Atlanta for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“This is my ship that I’m running. I’m the one in control here,” Swanson said. “I feel like the whole agency thing (with Freeman) got blown out of proportion. I feel like that was just kind of an easy way to gloss it over. There’s obviously so much that goes into things than that.
“At the end of the day, you just have to take ownership over your career.”
Taking ownership of his career including what happens this offseason as Swanson determines where he will be spending some of the prime years of his playing days that began with the Braves in 2016 after being traded to Atlanta by the Arizona Diamondbacks following being selected as the top overall pick in the 2015 draft.
“I’ve learned, just in life in general, if you want to be successful at something, you got to take ownership over it, whether that’s being a better husband, father, brother, friend, teammate,” Swanson said. “Whatever it is, you have to take ownership over it. That’s kind of how I’m feeling this situation when it comes to free agency.”