When I saw the Andrelton Simmons rumors last night I reacted like any fan of a team that has literally only one or two reasons to ever watch them, one of which includes Andrelton Simmons’ defense, might react: I had mini-existential crisis and channeled it into some tweets that seemed funny at the time but were really just sad. I’ll talk with my therapist about that stuff next time I see him. He has come to expect it.
By the light of morning I’m a lot more zen about it all. I realize that there aren’t any decent shortstops available right now, the Braves are going to suck regardless in 2016 and if they can sucker someone like A.J. Preller -- for, what, the third time? -- then more power to them. All the Braves I’ve rooted for the past several years play on other teams already anyway, so it wouldn’t be that big a change for me.
Today, however, we hear that perhaps the Braves aren’t truly serious about shopping Simmons. Or, at the very least, they’ll only trade him if the other team does something painfully stupid:
#Mets inquired on Simmons this morn and told ask price is Harvey or deGrom, so no way. Also shows how #Braves initially valuing Simmons
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) November 12, 2015
Yeah, that ain’t happening. And the Braves know it ain’t happening too, but they suggested it anyway. They suggested it, I suspect, because they realize how funny it is when New Yorkers scoff and get outraged too. “Haha, John, listen. I have it on speaker! Wilpon is going to say ‘fugetaboutit!’ again! This is gold!”
Anyway, it could be the case that the Braves simply don’t want to trade Simmons within the division, asked for something stupid from the Mets and are being more reasonable with other suitors. Suitors who, based on random chatter this morning, include the Padres, Dodgers and Angels. It could be the case that they don’t really plan to trade him at all but are doing some due diligence just in case.
All I know for sure is that if they want to keep asking for silly things from teams for a player they probably don’t really want to trade, I’m cool with it. I won’t panic until they ask for borderline reasonable things from teams for him.