With the season getting set to head down the home stretch, the Atlanta Braves are getting an early jump on calling up one of their top prospects. Shortstop Dansby Swanson has been called up to the big leagues straight out of Double-A and will join the Braves on Wednesday. Swanson will replace Erick Aybar, who was traded to the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
Swanson is the top prospect in the Braves system, and he was previously ranked the No. 7 midseason prospect in all of the minor leagues by Baseball America. MLB.com ranks Swanson as the fifth-best prospect in baseball. Swanson joins a handful of others on that list in making his major league debut this summer, including Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros, and Andrew Benintendi of the Boston Red Sox. With September coming up soon, more names on that list may not be far behind either. But if you had to rank prospects by their Twitter names, you would be hard-pressed to come up with a better one than Swanson’s Forrest Gump-inspired name.
The #Braves plan to select the contract of INF Dansby Swanson (@LieutenantDans7) on Wednesday. He will wear No. 2. pic.twitter.com/OIzh1qlnSo
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) August 16, 2016
The Braves picked up Swanson, a former No. 1 overall pick, to add to the farm system and long-term plans in an offseason trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks sent Swanson to the Braves along with Ender Inciarte and Aaron Blair in exchange for pitcher Shelby Miller. As expected, this turned out to be quite the bargain for the Braves. As the Braves look to insert a building block into their long-term future with a boy straight out of Kennesaw, Georgia, the Diamondbacks are hoping Miller can straighten himself out on the mound in triple-A.
From Spring Training, @LieutenantDans7 in slo-mo. #Braves @680_The_Fan pic.twitter.com/kPmVcf9eHB
— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) August 17, 2016
By all accounts, it would appear Arizona made a bad trade, and Atlanta looks ready to take advantage of it. Getting the extra at-bats in the month and a half remaining this season will be good for Swanson, who could take advantage as well and prepare himself for a possibility of being an Opening Day starter at shortstop for the Braves next spring if things go well now.