There’s been no shortage of Atlanta sports news lately, so I apologize for being a little late on this story. I find that the expression “better late than never” applies well in this scenario. Last week, the Braves made a blockbuster trade to get first baseman Matt Olson from the A’s. The team then doubled down on their investment by signing him to a new contract extension. How do these moves impact the outlook for the World Series Champion Atlanta Braves in 2022? Now that we’ve had some time to digest this information, let’s break it all down piece by piece.
Blockbuster trade details
Braves receive: 1B Matt Olson
A’s receive: C Shea Langeliers, OF Cristian Pache, RHP Ryan Cusick, RHP Joey Estes
Make no mistake about it, the Braves are in their World Series window & are going for it. After winning it all last year with an 88-73 record, this team is set up to excel in the short term. They were previously reluctant to trade any top prospects, and yet they gave up four for Olson. That’s because Olson is a stud, as evidenced by his 39 HR .271 average, & .911 OPS last year. The 27-year-old first baseman will be a staple of the Braves lineup as a middle of the order bat. He’s also a great player defensively, as evidenced by his 34 defensive runs saved from 2018-21. For all of these reasons, the Braves gave him a big contract extension shortly after acquiring him.
Contract extension details
The Braves signed Olson to an 8-year, $168 million extension through the 2029 season. A $20 million club option for 2030 was also added to the contract, so Olson is here for a while. This is the largest contract extension in Braves history, surpassing Freddie Freeman’s old deal. Like it or not, handing out that type of money to Olson comes with big expectations for him to not only be great, but to be the team’s next face of the franchise type of player like Freeman was. Time will tell whether or not Olson will successfully live up to these heightened expectations.
Braves connections
Olson has several Braves connections worth mentioning that made him want to play here. The first is that him & Dansby Swanson were going to be college roommates at Vanderbilt, at least that was the plan before he was drafted out of high school by the Oakland A’s in the 2012 Draft. He later met up with Braves third base coach Ron Washington during his rookie season in Oakland, where Washington was briefly the third base coach for the A’s during the 2016 season. Olson also shares an agent (B.B. Abbott) with legendary Braves third baseman Chipper Jones. Finally, he attended Parkview High School in Atlanta & knows fellow alumni Jeff Francoeur.
The bottom line
As Uncle Ben once said to Peter Parker in the movie Spider Man, “with great power comes great responsibility.” This is true in life and is equally true in the case of 1B Matt Olson. We traded a lot of prospect capital to get this guy, and are paying him a lot over the long haul. There’s no doubt he was a great player for the A’s, but can he replicate that success in Atlanta? He’s got big shoes to fill in the wake of Freddie Freeman’s surprising exodus from the Braves. This is the type of franchise altering move that results in either success or failure for decades. Braves fans in the Chop House should be on high-alert, as Olson has light tower power to RF.
The Sports Beacon 