Atlanta Braves call up their No. 1 prospect, Dansby Swanson
By Ted Fleming
The 22-year old shortstop gets the call from Double-A after Braves trade Erick Aybar to Tigers.
The Atlanta Braves are calling up their highly-touted shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson from their Double-A Southern League affiliate, the Mississippi Braves, according to a report at NBC Sports.
Swanson was originally drafted by the Rockies in the 38th round of the 2012 draft out of high school, but he chose to attend Vanderbilt University, where he was the first overall pick by the Braves three years later.
In pre-2016 rankings, the 22-year old was rated No. 17 by Baseball America, No. 27 by Baseball Prospectus and No. 8 in the MLB Pipeline. He is currently considered the fifth best prospect by MLB and Atlanta’s top prospect. Swanson was acquired with Aaron Blair and Ender Inciarte in a December trade that sent Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks.
If there is a question about this move, some believe that the Braves are wasting service time in what is considered a lost season, although the counter to that would be to get him as much experience as possible before the team moves into the new stadium next April.
Swanson has split the season between the High-A Carolina Mudcats, where he had .333/.441/.526 splits in 21 games before being bumped up to Mississippi where he added a .261/.342/.402 slashline with eight homers and 45 RBI over 84 contests.
A Kennesaw, Georgia native, Swanson is slated to fill the void left by Erick Aybar, who was traded to the Tigers earlier in the day. In that deal the Braves received 35-year old Mike Aviles and 23-year old catcher Kade Scivicque, the organization’s No. 20 prospect.