By: Charles Skipper

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

On March 14, 2022 the Atlanta Braves made a trade that shut one door on an era of the team’s history and opened another door on their future.

Alex Anthopoulos sealed a deal with the Oakland A’s that sent 4 prospects to Oakland in return for their starting first baseman Matt Olson.

Matt Olson, like his new teammate Dansby Swanson, played his high school ball in the Metro Atlanta area.

He was drafted by the Oakland A’s in 2012 out of Parkview High School in Lilburn, where he pitched and played first base for the 2011 and 2012 State Champion Panthers. The new Brave still holds the Gwinnett County record for wins and RBI.

Olson made his debut in the Show in 2016 when he got a September call up and appeared in 11 games. The number of games played increased to 59 in 2017. The young slugger saw his name penciled in the starting lineup for every game of the 2018 season.

A broken hand in 2019 and poor results in the Covid shortened 2020 season followed.

A full 2021 season saw Olson rebound to play 156 games and put-up solid numbers in all offensive categories. He hit for a .271 average, 39 HR, and 111 RBI and was selected to participate in the Home Run Derby and was named to the All-Star team.

Further honors for Olson were being named a finalist for both the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards.

The natural inclination is to compare Olson to Freeman. The obvious method to compare players is by the statistics they compile. The last 3 years the numbers the 2 players put up are very similar.

Freeman hit for a .304 BA/82 HR/142 OPS. Olson registered a .257 BA/89 HR/134 OPS. The two players were almost identical in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) with Freeman at 11.7 and Olson at 11.6.

The glaring difference in the performance numbers of the two first baseman is in the important category of hitting with runners in scoring position or RISP. Freeman ranks number 5 among all active players, while Olson comes in at 127th.

Professional Baseball has become consumed with the analytical side of the game. Many of today’s General Managers are young number crunchers whom have never played the game themselves. Analytics are evident in many of the in-game decisions and the infield shift is one of these type strategies based on numbers.

Another of these new analytical terms being used today is the aging curve. This is a fancy way to say the player is getting old.

The Braves with the trade for Olson are saying to me that the decision they made to let Freddie go was based more on his age at the length of a long-term contract than the money that was being discussed.

Within 24 hours long-term of signing Olson, Atlanta signed him to an 8 year 168 million-dollar contract extension, which is the largest in team history.

Ironically the previous largest contract for a Brave was a 5 year 135 million-dollar contract they gave Freeman.

Alex Anthopoulos has proven up to this point to be a shrewd GM and will be forever linked to the trading deadline deals that propelled Atlanta to the World Series title last season.

Hopefully years from now we will look back on the Olson trade as another smart decision by Anthopoulos.

Matt Olson grew up dreaming of playing for the Braves and fate has granted him his wish. History shows us that some players struggle early when they come to a new team and have a big contract to live up to.

Olson will have to handle the pressure of the big contract along with the ones that come from being a Hometown Kid and having to follow a player of Freeman’s stature.

Braves fans hope Olson can adjust quickly to his new team this season, be productive, and make us proud that he is the answer to the question Who’s On First?