LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – After a 12-day flurry in which the Braves signed four players to multi-year contract extensions worth a minimum of $222.7 million, a lot of people think Andrelton Simmons could and/or should be next.
The Gold Glove shortstop reported to spring training Tuesday and almost immediately fielded that question as cleanly as he fields grounders up the middle.
“I’m just focused on playing,” he said. “If it happens, great. I love Atlanta. So hopefully something gets done. But you never know.”
The Braves gave a franchise-record eight-year, $135 million contract to Freddie Freeman; a four-year, $42 million deal to closer Craig Kimbrel; a six-year, $32.4 million contract to Julio Teheran, and a two-year, $13.3 million deal to Jason Heyward.
“I’m glad,” Simmons said, listing how glad he was for each of them, by name, then smiling before adding: “Now I can get spoiled. I don’t have to pay for anything.”
In all seriousness, he said: “We all know what we have in Freddie. We know what we have in Jason. Julio does a good job on the mound. And I think Kimbrel is the best closer that I’ve seen. You’ve got to love what the Braves have done.”
So what about Simmons? In his first full season in the majors, the 24-year-old Curacao native not only won a Rawlings Gold Glove as the National League’s top defensive shortstop, he also won the company’s Platinum Glove as the league’s best overall defensive player regardless of position.
“I didn’t think I was going to get it,” he said of the latter award, which he thought would go to Cardinals perennial Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina. “I don’t see myself playing, so I can’t tell you how good I am.”
It’s uncertain whether Simmons will become arbitration eligible as a Super 2 player after the 2014 season, or if he’ll fall just short of being in the top 17 percent of service time under three years, the threshold for Super 2 status. If it’s the latter, he won’t be arb-eligible until after the 2015 season.
Either way, it could behoove the Braves to get him signed for the long term before he even gets to arbitration, as they did with Teheran, who also has under two years of service time.
It’s believed that the only potential obstacle to getting a deal done with Simmons is a difference of opinion as to how much his offense is worth, and how much any offensive deficiency is offset by his overwhelming defensive ability.
Simmons hit just .248 with a .296 on-base percentage, but among NL shortstops he ranked first in WAR (6.7) and fourth in home runs (17) and RBIs (59).
“I don’t understand the whole thing, but I know I’ve got to do my work,” he said. “I’ve got to earn whatever.”
He’s been one of the first to arrive at spring training in past years, but Simmons showed up on reporting day Tuesday after being delayed several weeks by visa issues in Curacao. That also prevented him from doing what he did last year, when he came to the United States a month or so before camp and and traveled to Oklahoma to work out with his former junior college team.
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