Yankees Acquire Nick Swisher

by Charlie Wilmoth on Nov 13, 2008 6:01 PM EST

Nick Swisher heads to the Yankees for Wilson Betemit and minor league pitchers Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez. I've always liked Betemit, but I have no idea what the White Sox are doing here. Marquez struck out 33 batters in 80 innings at AAA this year and isn't a great bet to ever pitch well in the bigs. Nunez, acquired from Washington in a minor deal and, before that, from the Dodgers for Marlon Anderson, is a pretty good relief prospect, but that's it. I've long thought Betemit deserved more playing time than his employers gave him, but he's coming off a season in which he had an 86 OPS+.

Swisher wasn't really any better, posting a 92 OPS+ to go along with his .219 batting average, but he still hit for good power and drew walks. The White Sox are selling low here, which it's usually only wise to do if you think the low are just going to get lower. The Sox must have looked at the $22 million they owed Swisher over the next three years and decided it just wasn't worth it. They may or may not turn out to be right, but I don't feel like $22 million is too high a price for a player of Swisher's upside. I'd worry about his power/walks/no-batting-average skillset if I were his GM too, but I still wouldn't trade him for scraps. The White Sox are big losers here--they're getting a lot less for Swisher than they traded to get him.

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This SHOULD

end the Nate McLouth to the Yankees rumors that the New York press seems to like to concoct.

by Thunder on Nov 13, 2008 7:19 PM EST reply actions

I doubt it.

Yankee fans are big believers in manifest destiny. Even if they’ve got Swisher, they’ll still want us to trade them Nate for Eric Duncan and Steve White, so he can be their fourth outfielder.

by Vlad on Nov 15, 2008 12:56 PM EST up reply actions

It's a baffling move

WFAN, the voice of NY sports, said that Swisher is mainly a CF, but can play both corner outfield positions and will LIKELY BE GROOMED FOR 1ST BASE. This makes no sense as the Yanks have too many people who can play 1st/DH. Betamit was a good bench player but there’s no guarantee he can perform day in, day out. I can’t see Swisher as a full-time player. Why the Yanks made this decision is baffling.

by Trogluddite on Nov 13, 2008 9:38 PM EST reply actions

It's easy enough to understand.

They got a good player for several marginal ones, and since that good player can play a bunch of different places, he gives them flexibility to make all kinds of other moves later in the offseason. They just announced him as a 1B so they can keep leverage on dealing Damon/Matsui/Melky.

by Vlad on Nov 15, 2008 12:58 PM EST up reply actions

Didn't the Sox get Swisher from the A's?

Somewhere, once again, Billy Beane is laughing.

by bucdaddy on Nov 14, 2008 10:06 AM EST reply actions

Nick Swisher

is not an everyday CF and the WhiteSox never should have used him there.

He makes sense for the Yankees at 1B and also because of age and injury concerns with OF like Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui. Melky Cabrera failed to impress in 2008, too.

The rumor mill from my hometown-Parkersburg-says that Nick Swisher needs to rededicate himself to baseball. He had too many distractions off the field last season.

True or not, he didn’t have a good 2008, and needs to play much better next year.

by patthatt on Nov 19, 2008 3:18 AM EST reply actions