Braves Have a Good Problem At Shortstop

ORLANDO–When the Braves front office came to take shortstops Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies away from big league manager Fredi Gonzalez in spring training, he begged for more time.

The Braves hadn’t started to play games on the minor league side yet when Gonzalez made his pitch. He promised that he could give the dynamic duo at-bats they couldn’t get yet in minor league camp. He wanted to give them a greater taste of big league camp.

Really, he just was having too much fun watching them play.

“They let me have them a week later than they wanted to,” Gonzalez said. “I joke all the time: There are times I can’t wait to get the veteran guys out (of the game) to watch those guys play. They energize the coaching staff. We want to teach these guys.

“You wouldn’t believe how many conversations we had. ‘Gun to your head, who plays short? Who plays second?’ “

Eventually, Swanson and Albies were shipped out to minor league camp, where the debate about which will play shortstop continued.

Atlanta’s rebuilding effort largely has focused on pitchers. The position-player talent does not match the arms overall, but Swanson and Albies will be two of the cornerstone pieces in the rebuilding project.

Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft who was acquired from the Diamondbacks in December in the Shelby Miller trade, has the more prototypical shortstop body. Albies reminds longtime Braves coaches of Rafael Furcal, though he doesn’t have Furcal’s cannon arm.

The Braves are confident that either could capably play shortstop in the major leagues. But they have yet to figure out which would do a better job at shortstop.

In most cases a team would try to separate two premium shortstop prospects so that both can both play the position, but the Braves toyed with the idea of keeping them together this season and having them alternate between second base and shortstop week by week. On the back fields in spring training, they played on the same team, swapping back and forth from shortstop to second base.

Eventually the Braves did decide to let them both play shortstop full time. Albies will be the shortstop at Double-A Mississippi. Swanson will start his Braves career as the high Class A Carolina shortstop. The decision has been put off, at least for a little while.

Both will play key roles in the Braves’ future. It’s just that no one knows exactly which one will be the shortstop yet.