Albies and Swanson settling in the middle infield for the Braves

For the past few weeks, we have watched Ozzie Albies join Dansby Swanson to form the new double-play combination for the Atlanta Braves. It’s something we’ve waited on since Swanson was acquired from Arizona, as it became obvious the Braves had two very good players for the future in the middle infield.

Albies is still just 20 years old, while Swanson is 23 years old. The duo could be at the center, literally, of the new-look Braves into the next decade.

History has shown us that when the Braves are good, they have a strong, young combination at second base and shortstop. Maybe that’s a sign that now the Braves have put Albies and Swanson together, they need to leave them alone and just let them play.

In 1981, two 23-year-olds formed the double-play duo that would be in the middle of the good Braves teams in the early 1980s. Both Glenn Hubbard and Rafael Ramirez were 23 years old that season. Hubbard had already been Atlanta’s main second baseman for two years prior to Ramirez taking over shortstop.

Hubbard and Ramirez spent the six seasons together as Atlanta’s double-play combination. Hubbard was a great defensive player, a sparkplug, while Ramirez had some solid seasons despite occasional troubles in the field.

A few years later, two young kids came up and formed the next double-play duo for the Braves. Mark Lemke took over second base from Jeff Treadway, and Jeff Blauser finally made himself the main shortstop from Rafael Belliard.

The 1993 season was the one that saw Lemke and Blauser take over as the middle-infield combination. They spent the next five seasons together on great teams, including the World Series team in 1995.

Even at the end of the Braves division-winning run, they had the combination of Marcus Giles at second and Rafael Furcal at shortstop for three consecutive seasons.

Swanson has obviously been frustrating at times in his first full season. He was basically replaced by Johan Camargo and sent back to Triple-A. Only a fluke injury to Camargo got Swanson called back up to Atlanta, but he’s hit .337 with a .434 OBP since he’s returned. Now, Swanson has his position back.

And Albies has been solid since being called up August 1. He has hit .284 with a .349 on-base percentage in his first 32 games. He’s probably more valuable to the Braves now that they’ve seen him in Atlanta than he was before, when it seemed Albies was mentioned in every trade rumor connected with the team.

So perhaps the Braves have found their double-play combination for the next few years. It seems when there has been stability at those two positions, good things have happened to this team. It happened with "Hubby and Rafy" many years ago, and then with "Lemmer and Blaus" when the Braves won it all. It’s good to have two young players join a club that’s obviously important to Atlanta’s success.

This story was originally published September 6, 2017 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Albies and Swanson settling in the middle infield for the Braves."