Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 13, 2008
More on Swisher

Peter Abraham posts audio of Brian Cashman talking about the Swisher deal and sums it up also:

Swisher is not here to play CF. Cashman made that clear. He's here to play 1B. Cashman did not close the door to anything else happening (he never does), but it's pretty evident that they see Swisher playing 1B and having the ability to play LF or RF on occasion. That would enable them to keep Jorge Posada in the lineup once in a while as the 1B.

...

This move allows the Yankees to focus their attention (and money) on starting pitching. Mark Teixeira just lost a lot of leverage.

I wonder how much of that last bit was the plan all along. The Yankees might see how the bidding goes on Teixeira, and if it's not too high sweep in at the last moment with a great bid. That's pretty much how they got Johnny Damon. They made him a tough to refuse offer and gave him very little time to accept or reject it. It's easy enough to move Nick to the outfield if Cashman manages to land Teixeira anyway.

More likely, however, is that they'll buy two starting pitchers.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:09 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

That's pretty much how they got Johnny Damon.

By bidding against themselves in years and $$$$$$? I think they offered Damon a total of $22M more than Boston. Now he's been there 3 yrs - can't play CF and gives them 1 more DH-LF-1B type. Which is the same thing Swisher gives them.

Posted by: bandit at November 13, 2008 07:45 PM

Hey bandit, you are right on again! Another questionable move by NYY

Posted by: emains at November 13, 2008 10:39 PM

There's nothing questionable about picking up Swisher for more or less free. They gave less talent than they got, and it makes it worthwhile. It's the Damon contract that was a bad idea, and fairly obviously so at the time. Boston pretty clearly won that 'trade'.

Posted by: NBarnes at November 13, 2008 10:42 PM

The Yankees did that with Mussina. They offered him more than he expected and told him a) he had a day to accept it and b) he couldn't shop it around (or the offer was void.)

That's smart negotiating.

Posted by: soccer dad at November 14, 2008 07:49 AM

I don't see how Swisher helps them unless they're going to play him in RF - he had a

Posted by: Bandit at November 14, 2008 11:01 AM

Posted by: Bandit at November 14, 2008 11:05 AM
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