Braves’ Simmons is majors’ top defender and subject of trade rumors
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons was named the 2015 Wilson Defensive Player of the Year for all of major league baseball on Wednesday. Now the question is, how long will he remain a Brave?
Trade rumors began to circulate late Wednesday, and the Braves said they weren’t looking to trade Simmons but were willing to listen. After losing 95 games in 2015, they are determined to upgrade their roster without significantly increasing payroll, and trading Simmons could bring back multiple young players and/or prospects in return.
The Braves had received interest from about a dozen teams since word spread during the General Managers Meetings this week that Simmons could be available. Although a modest-at-best offensive player, Simmons is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive shortstops in history and the best at least since Ozzie Smith and Omar Vizquel.
Another factor that drives up the asking price on Simmons: He’s 26 years old and under contract for five more seasons through 2020, with salaries totaling $53 million in that span, escalating from $6 million 2016 to $15 million in 2020.
Simmons, a unanimous winner of the Fielding Bible Award last month as the best defensive shortstop in the majors – the third consecutive year he won that honor unanimously – was similarly named Wednesday night as Wilson’s best defensive shortstop by Wilson for a third year in a row. Then he topped that by collecting his first Wilson overall award as the top defensive player at any position.
Simmons has won the Fielding Bible and Wilson awards as the majors’ best shortstop in all three of his full major league seasons. He won consecutive National League shortstop Gold Gloves before the surprising announcement Tuesday that the San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Crawford edged him out for this year’s award.
Three-fourths of the Gold Glove votes come from the managers and coaches in each respective league, and there have been notable cases over the years when a player with more impressive offensive statistics beat out a player generally considered the better defensive player, even though offense is not supposed to factor into the equation at all.
There was some speculation after Tuesday’s announcement that Crawford’s far-superior offensive production had helped him beat out Simmons for the Gold Glove, although Crawford is also an outstanding defensive shortstop.
