LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Chipper Jones has been in Braves camp since only Monday, but the former Braves third baseman and now special assistant in baseball operations saw enough of Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies to form an opinion.
“Very impressed,” Jones said of the shortstops, who were among five prospects sent to the minors Friday in the latest spring-training roster cuts. “I don’t know what the immediate future holds for both of them — where they’re going to start, where they’re going to end up — but I know that both kids impressed down here.
“They’ve been the talk of the camp since I’ve been here. And from reading everything before I got here, they were the talk of the camp before I got here, too. I’ve been very impressed the last couple of days. They’re not fazed by the stage that they’re on, they’re not fazed by the competition that they’re facing.”
Albies, 19, hit .371 (13-for-35) with a home run and two stolen bases in 16 games while playing shortstop and second base. Swanson, 22 and entering his first full season of pro ball, also split time at those two positions and hit .300 (9-for-30) with three doubles, a triple and three RBIs in 16 games.
Jones, who will work with hitters as part of his duties, accompanied the Braves split-squad team to Viera on Thursday for a game against the Nationals. Albies went 3-for-5, and Swanson had a double and two-out RBI single in the seventh inning to give the Braves a 7-6 lead.
“Albies yesterday took a couple of horrible swings against (Stephen) Strasburg breaking balls, and then the very next pitch he laces a ball,” Jones said. “Dansby barreled up Strasburg the first two times, didn’t get anything to show for it. Then in a tie ballgame late, rips a double into the gap. So it’s the kind of things you want to see out of young guys, that they’re not fazed by the stage they’re on.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez played Albies and Swanson together frequently, alternating each between shortstop and second base. The Braves plan to have each of them play shortstop full-time for different minor league affiliates this season before deciding which of the two should move to second base.
“From what I saw here — obviously it’s spring training, a little different than April through September — but these guys are going to be good major league baseball players,” Gonzalez said. “You see when they come up, barring injuries, when they come up they’re going to be longtime major league baseball players. They have the intangibles. They have the work ethic. Characterwise, they all look you in the eye. So I’m looking forward to that day when they come up and help us.”
Jones was impressed by their confidence and maturity, as well as their ability to switch back and forth between shortstop and second base despite limited experience at the latter position.
“I like how they’re both versatile,” said Jones, who came up as a shortstop before switching to third base. “They’re interchangeable at short and second. I think Dansby’s even gotten some reps at third. But I think you really look to the future and want to solidify what you’ve got up the middle.
“The Braves are putting an awful lot of eggs in those two baskets to be the future up the middle. You don’t know who’s going to play short and who’s going to play second, but the fact of the matter is, they’re both going to be there and they’re both high on everybody’s radar to be part of the core for the next five to 10 years.”
Both players took it in stride Friday after being informed of the roster moves by Gonzalez.
Albies was asked by a reporter if he’d go down to the minor leagues, stay motivated and continue to play as hard as he has in big-league camp. “Why not?” he replied. “I want to be here.”
Swanson, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft out of Vanderbilt, was asked about the secret to being so calm and confident in his first major league camp.
“I think the biggest thing was just to understand that being yourself is, like, the biggest key,” the Marietta High graduate said. “I was explaining to one of my friends the other day — she plays soccer professionally and she’s starting out just like I am, it’s her first year. And she’s nervous about it. I said, listen, you’ve been successful everywhere you’ve gone. In high school she was really good, then she went to Vandy, transferred to Florida State and won a national championship at Florida State. You’ve been good everywhere you’ve gone and you’ve been to a lot of different places. So continue to be yourself and adjust along the way and you’ll be fine.
“You just draw confidence from that. So that’s kind of how I approached it. And if I wasn’t successful doing it how I normally do things, then that’s when you adjust and go from there.”
