5 reasons the Braves shouldn’t have traded Andrelton Simmons
By John Buhler
4. Karmic Matters
Simmons seems like one of the friendliest guys in the game of baseball today. He never seemed to have a bad day when he was playing baseball. Many players say that, but Simmons lives it.
Simmons grew up in Curacao watching his childhood idol Andruw Jones make great defensive play after great defensive play in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s playing for the Braves. Since the island of Curacao would broadcast all of Jones’ games, Simmons became a fan of both the Braves and their common World Series adversary the New York Yankees. After a year of community college in Oklahoma, Simmons had to have been ecstatic to sign with his ‘hometown team’.
Yes, this is a business and tough decisions are made all the time, but trading away a player that grew up worshiping the Team of the 90’s seems like bad karma, not like the current Braves or Atlanta professional sports in general need anymore.
Atlanta dealt through this same sort of issue last offseason when the club traded away another defensive guru with offensive limitations in Jason Heyward to the St. Louis Cardinals to acquire Shelby Miller. While Erick Aybar can certainly continue the tradition of great shortstops for the Atlanta Braves, ending the Andrelton Simmons Era in Atlanta this abruptly in a manner to get a little better feels a little brash.
Simmons is the type of player everybody wants to see do well. The Angels are going to love having him and he will play with a chip on his shoulder to prove that what the Atlanta Braves did in sending him to Orange County was a mistake. Fortunately for the Atlanta Braves, they don’t play the Angels all that often, just once every three years during interleague play.
Next: This Puts Enormous Pressure on Aybar and Company