The New York Yankees acquired center fielder-first baseman Nick Swisher in a trade with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday. <!-- begin whole table --> <!-- begin top part --> Not even average Nick Swisher in 2008 had the worst batting average among players with at least 502 plate appearances, the number needed to qualify for the batting title. <!-- end top part --> <!-- begin table --> <table class="left" cellspacing="0"> <caption>From the bottom up </caption> <tbody><tr> <td>Nick Swisher, White Sox</td> <td>.219</td> </tr> <tr class="io-evenRow"> <td>Daric Barton, A's</td> <td>.226</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Michael Bourn, Astros</td> <td>.229</td> </tr> <tr class="io-evenRow"> <td>Jack Cust, A's</td> <td>.231</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Mark Ellis, A's</td> <td>.233</td> </tr> <tr class="io-evenRow"> <td>Rickie Weeks, Brewers</td> <td>.234</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Kevin Millar, Orioles</td> <td>.234</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <!-- end table --> <!-- end whole table -->The Yankees traded infielder Wilson Betemit and minor league pitchers Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez to Chicago in exchange for the switch-hitting Swisher and minor league pitcher Kanekoa Texeira. Swisher, 27, hit .219 with 24 home runs in 153 games with Chicago this season. Swisher is a potential first base candidate for the Yankees, who recently declined to exercise Jason Giambi's $22 million option for 2009. He also played all three outfield positions for Chicago this season, and gives manager Joe Girardi another outfield option. "We're excited with the addition of Nick Swisher," Girardi said in a statement released by the team. "We feel he has a ton of upside. He's a patient switch-hitter, adds versatility at a number of defensive positions, including first base and the outfield, and will be a positive presence inside the clubhouse." The Yankees are currently looking at a possible outfield alignment of Johnny Damon in left field, a platoon of Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera in center and Xavier Nady in right. Hideki Matsui is also coming back from knee surgery, and could play left or be a designated hitter. Swisher's arrival -- for Chicago last season, he made 69 starts in center field, 47 starts at first base, 16 starts in left and 11 starts in right -- could lessen the chances of the Yankees offering salary arbitration to right fielder Bobby Abreu, who hit .296 and drove in 100 runs last season. The White Sox acquired Swisher from Oakland last January in a trade for pitchers Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. Swisher got off to a slow start, hitting .211 in April, and watched his playing time decrease significantly by September. Marquez, 24, was a supplemental first-round draft pick by the Yankees out of Sacramento City College in 2004. He posted a 43-40 record and a 3.60 ERA in five minor league seasons with New York. The 22-year-old Texeira was 6-3 with 21 saves and a 1.33 ERA in 51 combined relief appearances with Class A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham, ranking second among White Sox minor leaguers in saves. Betemit hit .265 with 13 doubles, six home runs and 25 RBI in 87 games with the Yankees in 2008, making starts at all four infield positions. He was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 2007 trade deadline in exchange for right-handed pitcher Scott Proctor. Nunez was acquired at the 2008 trade deadline from the Washington Nationals in exchange for infielder Alberto Gonzalez. He is 21-18 record with a 3.26 ERA in 93 career minor league games (64 starts). Jerry Crasnick covers Major League Baseball for ESPN.com. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3700869
Great trade. This gets Betemit and Marquez off the 400 man, giving us a spot for the Rule V draft coming up. Great job buying low, Cash.
To hold onto a Rule V player a team has to carry him on the 25 man roster all season. Don't see the Yankees doing that. But it was a great trade as you mentioned. Swisher has a good upside, and Betemit was not as good with the Yankees as he was at previous stops. -Petey
Oh, it's 25? Thought it was the 40, my bad. We were both, sort of, right. As in the amateur draft, the selection order of the teams is based on each team's win-loss record from the prior regular season, each round starting with the team with the worst record and proceeding in order to the team with the best record. Any player selected under Rule 5 is immediately added to his new team's 40-man roster; thus, teams who do not have an available roster spot may not participate in the Rule 5 draft. Players who are not currently on their team's 40-man roster are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft, but only after a standard exemption period has elapsed. See Exemptions to Selection Eligibility below. If chosen in the Rule 5 draft, a player must be kept on the selecting team's 25-man major league roster for the entire season after the draft--he may not be optioned or designated to the minors. The selecting team may, at any time, waive the Rule 5 draftee. If a Rule 5 draftee clears waivers by not signing with a new MLB team, he must be offered back to the original team, effectively canceling the Rule 5 draft choice. Once a Rule 5 draftee spends an entire season on his new team's 25-man roster, his status reverts to normal and he may be optioned or designated for assignment. We gave up 2 okay pitchers (Nunez is a power arm, though), and Wilson freaking Betemit, (and we shell out two million more dollars.), and in exchange we get a versatile (who, indecently, plays two positions of need), switch-hitter with power who had a down year. Do like. Do like very much indeed.
What? Why do people think this is a good trade? I know we didnt give up much but this pretty much sure the fact that we are not going after Teixera which sucks i thought Teixera should be #2 on the list of players we should sign after CC...I just dont get why we would want Swisher he has always been extremely overrated he has never hit over 265 or had 100 rbis he is only 27 but i just dont like him at all he strikes out alot and has a horrible obp...hell i would rather have Giambi over him
Atm I don't think the Yankees/Cashman brought him in to be a starter, or I hope not. Cashman does do some stupid things. -Petey
You mean like not betting the farm, while knowing that Sabathia was coming into FA the next year? He's likely leverage for signing Tex/Abreu (Mostly Abreu).
1) That's not his only mistake. He really thinks that he is crafty, and a lot of his moves backfire. (Forget Santana here, how about missing out on Dice K and throwing money at Igawa instead?) 2) And if CC doesn't sign with the Yankees, makes not getting Santana look worse? Personally I think that Cashman hasn't taken enough crap over not even making the playoffs the last year the Yankees played in 'Yankee Stadium'. -Petey
Igawa was a knee-jerk move to save face. I agree, that was one of the stupidest things he has done. I've seen ton of shit given to Cash for not making the playoffs. He wasn't thinking about the short-term, though, he was looking at the long-term. I don't think you can be disappointed about that.
I think he still needs to take more crap. He has no real direction. He claims that he wants to build long term, but offers Damon a huge contract a year after turning Beltran down (who wanted to play so badly for the Yankees, he offered to take less years and $), now there are rumors the Yankees are interested in Cameron, whose no spring chicken either. Cashman really does a lot of back tracking losing out on superior talent. -Petey
Yankees needed a lead-off bat. Damon was plucked from a Rival, and a for a bit cheaper. His direction has been obvious: Use the Yankees resources to develop talent, which can be used for your own club, or be traded for established players, and to sign big free agents when the time is right. He's fucked up. All GMs do. I'm glad he's told the two younger Steins to sit the fuck down, and let him do his job. We'd be a terrible team with Hank and Hal running the show.
Jeter won't have been able to lead off? The Mets aren't a rival? And it doesn't look like Damon is much cheaper for the talent now. And I don't even see how you can claim that is his direction... trade for established players... he missed out on Santana, than Tex and CC (at the deadline), and looks like he is not even involved w/ the Padres in trying to bring Peavy to NY. While you think that Hank and Hal might field a horrible team, maybe you can tell me when do you think we will see another 200M$ team finish... as well as the 2008 Yankees have. -Petey
from everything i have read Cashman got Swisher to start him at 1B and put Damon in LF Melky/Gardner in CF and Nady for RF and have Matsui play DH they also want to resign Abreu which i dont think we should do..IMO keep the money we would spend on Abreu and throw it at CC/Teix and Oliver Perez who i think is better then AJ Burnett who has really only had 1 good season and is injury prone...I think AJ would be a mistake of Pavano level
Jeter isn't as good a leadoff man as Damon. Jeter is the perfect #2 hitter, he'd be an adequate 1. No, the Mets aren't rivals with the Yankees. They don't play each other 17 times a season.
