Give the New York Mets credit for a lot of things this offseason. Chief among them was keeping Brandon Nimmo.

It wasn’t just keeping a homegrown player who wanted to stay a Met. It was the fact there was no other everyday center fielders on the market.

The Mets were left with no other choice to but keep Nimmo. They did that giving him an eight year $162 million deal. This assured the Mets were going to well surpass the Cohen Tax.

The Atlanta Braves weren’t in the same position with Dansby Swanson to open the offseason. However, they’d eventually find themselves there.

Trea Turner went to the Philadelphia Phillies. After the San Diego Padres missed out on Turner, they landed Xander Bogaerts. After Carlos Correa signed with the San Francisco Giants, only Swanson remained.

This is where the Braves needed to step up and sign Swanson. Instead, he signed a seven year $177 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

As a result, the Cubs team derided most of the offseason for doing nothing has an All-Star, Gold shortstop. The Braves are left with nothing.

Sure, maybe the Braves had a trick up their sleeve when Freddie Freeman was a free agent. When he didn’t sign for their price, they traded for Matt Olson and gave him one of those classic Braves extensions.

With that in mind, when the Braves acquired Sean Murphy in the three way trade with the Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers, they failed to shake Willy Adames loose.

There also doesn’t seem to be any shortstops on the trade market. That may end in them giving the job to Braden Shewmake. The 24 year old played 76 games in Triple-A and had a .715 OPS.

Whatever the result, despite the Braves being flush with cash, they punted at shortstop in free agency. Even better, there are rumors the Braves, who are again flush with cash, are rumored to be considering trading Max Fried to cut payroll.

The Mets are doing all they can to win. The Braves don’t have a shortstop. Keep in mind, both teams had 101 wins meaning the Mets are a much bigger leg up in capturing the NL East.