Nick Swisher may look to match Jayson Werth’s seven-year, $126MM contract when he hits free agency after the season, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports. Some Yankees people have heard Swisher will at least shoot for a deal in the $126MM range, according to Heyman. The Yankees don’t appear to have had extension talks with Swisher, but he’s interested in re-signing.
"Everyone knows how much I love New York. I've been very vocal about that. This place has been so amazing for me,'' Swisher said.
Swisher said Werth’s contract is “a great deal for him,'' but MLB executives aren’t convinced it’d be appropriate for Swisher, Heyman reports. One executive laughed about the possibility and another said “the Werth deal is insane'' so it doesn’t matter that he and Swisher resemble one another statistically. Perhaps a three-year, $45MM contract or a four-year, $60MM contract would be more reasonable, the executive suggested.
Dan Lozano of Icon Sports Group represents Swisher. In my view he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t push for a possible nine-figure contract. It may not be the most likely outcome for Swisher, but it’s a possibility an aggressive agent should be expected to pursue.
Looks like someone’s been smoking too many Swishers.
win
…w/ Snoop Dogg, B-Real and Katt Williams in attendance. Someone need’s to tell him “Less puffing and more passing homie”.
Luckily, I think that’s more people’s assumption and less what Swisher and his agent are probably thinking.
Chronic jokes aside..Swisher is a very good player.
Since 2010:
.274/.364/.481 w/ 70 hrs, a 12% walk rate and a combined overall 10.6 WAR and 10.4 UZR.
Overall, he’s been better than Jones, Choo, Willingham, etc.
4/$54 seems fair to me. Ages 32, 33, 34 and 35 and then cut bait.
why not though, if werth gets that much why not try. it’s insane how much teams are overpaying guys.
His agent SHOULD try, especially if he has a thick skin, a poker face and brass cojones. “Werth” a shot. That’s going to be a new catch phrase whenever a player’s agent asks for a crazy contract and get’s rebuffed.
“Hahahaha….oh my..That was funny. Hey, it was WERTH a shot, right?”
No way in H*** I give him $100 Mil. Please tell me this is a late, late, April Fools joke.
If he’s expecting a $100M contract, then Shane Victorino better be doing the same. Swish will probably sign for something like 4/60 when it’s all said and done.
WTF? How would his agent say that with a straight face?
Within the two years before Werth’s deal, he provided excellent defense and good baserunning, along with the similar offensive numbers. Even as a Red Sox fan I like Nick Swisher, but Werth was overpaid, and Swisher is not worth even close to that much. Even J.D. Drew-money would be a stretch.
This cannot be serious.
The only way Nick Swisher gets a 100MM+ contract is if he signs for 100+ years.
Hahaha, great joke!?!?!
“a great deal for him”
It’d be a great deal for me if I made $126M over 7 years too.
Good Luck Swisher! I was thinking 10-12 Mil a year so maybe a 50-60 Mil contract?
Werth didn’t deserve his contract, what makes Swisher think he deserves a Werth contract?
No way. I’d be surprised if he gets more than $50 over four. He’s okay, but not that good. A Victor Martinez type contract would be fair.
Good call, and VMart-type contract might be pushing it since VMart plays (occasionally) catcher
How I see it is that Martinez is a better hitter, but his horrid defense compared to Swisher evens it out a bit. Both are similar in WAR.
Good points. I also think that Swisher is somewhat of a product of playing in the orgasmically LHH friendly bandbox known as Yankee Stadium. And a team whose ballpark isn’t nearly as lefty friendly should be wary of signing Swisher for big bucks.
Agreed; there are other considerations besides WAR. Swisher has much better lineup & home field
Shoot for the stars I guess. The best I can see him doing is maybe a little less than Jason Bay’s contract and that’s the absolute best case scenario.
4 years $42 million, and he has to sign in a small ballpark to make that worth the contract too. Swisher has little power.
Well, no, he hit 80 home runs in the football field that is O.co in his 1,617 ABs with Oakland. So please tell me how he has little power again?
Wow, I was thinking less than half of that. He is well rounded, but I would say something like 4/$48 at most.
easy decision for swisher to walk
Uhm, if that’s the case then so long Swish. Love the guy and all, but he’s no $100 million + player. Not to mention the last years of such a contract would likely mean declining numbers from him… Werth was overpaid so his contract should not be part of the argument.
I, for one, would love to lock Nick Swisher up at $17 million a year until he’s 40. The dude is a good player and seems like a class act, but come on. Like everyone here has said, 4 years/40+ million should be the most he gets.
Someone will give him a 5th year somewhere in the range of 14 million per.
$70 mil /5 years would be a heck of a contract for him and not that over valued when you look at the comparables in free agency.
translation.. if some GM was crazy enough to overpay Werth, I expect to be grossly overpaid as well.
Yeah, but one also has to remember that mike rizzo VASTLY overpaid for werth and has to date been the single worst signing of that offseason
$50-60M tops. $100M is just Boras fantasy numbers.
Except boras isn’t his agent
I think a much better comparison is Ethier’s five-year, $85 million contract, which has a vesting option that can push it to $100 million. So Swisher isn’t totally crazy here.
He is no where near the player Ethier is.
Are you sure? Swisher has had four years better than Andre Ethier’s best year (3.5 WAR back in 2008). He’s also 31, just one year older than Ethier.
Ya exactly my sentiments….Manzella is correct. They aren’t near the same player because Swisher has been much better over his career.
No way…plus you have to factor in that Swisher played in a great lineup with the Yankees. I like Swisher, always have, but let’s face it, he’s not an elite player, and most of his appeal came from the fact that he wasn’t getting paid a lot of money. Even a 4/60 deal is too much for someone who’s a good but not great hitter and is more of a complimentary player than an outright star.As for the Werth contract, well, it was obvious then and it’s more obvious now that the Nats got hosed.
He usually hits like 6th or 7th and the lineup has little to do with anything besides stupid stats like RBI’s and runs and if you’re looking at them then the conversation doesn’t need to go any further. Nobody is saying Werth’s deal is a good one for him or Swisher…the point is Swisher is a better player than Ethier just about any way you cut it. And Ethier is getting over $100MM. Neither of them are worth that. $75MM would be the insane Werth type contract for Swisher in a realistic world and 4-52-60 is the proper contract. Ethier is basically a platoon DH.
No IMO Ethier is the better player. He leads Swisher in caerr avg, oBP, slg not to mention WAR per game played. This is fact. Plus Swisher hits 6th or 7th so he has a lot of protection, never had to carry an offense. And he playsin a band box, and is a bad defender. Hes a good player but I like Andre more
Obiously neither is worth 4/60. More like 4/40 or 4/36 in my book…if they’re lucky
According to what? They’re actually very similar hitters over their careers. Swisher hits for less average but still manages a similar OBP and SLG, and their OPS+s for their careers are within 5 points of one another. That’s pretty close to identical.
Defensive metrics are a bit iffy in my opinion, but to choose one, UZR/150 has Ethier consistently in the hole with Swisher hovering around 0 — in other words, close again but slightly in Swisher’s favor.
More to Swisher’s benefit: He’s a switch hitter and has at least a little bit of defensive versatility. Ethier has a slight age advantage.
Honestly, it was a really good comparison.
What kind of player is eithier
The Dodgers arguably overpaid for Ethier. I’m a Dodger fan and I believe so, anyway. But Andre has a large fanbase in L.A. that adores him, so I’m not surprised ownership was OK with overpaying to keep him away from free agency.
Ethier and Swisher are definitely comparable players, but given the younger and more versatile OFers available in free agency this offseason, I don’t think Swisher is well-positioned for a deal comparable to Ethier. I do think Swisher can manage something like 4 years/$64m, though.
Possibly with the Dodgers. They could use him in LF until Puig is ready, then move him to 1B.
Good luck with that.
Fell out of my chair laughing. A career .255 hitter who only cracked 90 RBI’s once in 9 years. If he gets $100 mil, Geoff Jenkins has to consider coming out of retirement.
I would have thought Jenkins was manning the outfield for the Sugar Land Skeeters by now.
RBI’s? Really?
Something wrong with my observation? I realize RBI is an “overrated stat” if that’s what you’re getting at, but let’s be honest…throw me all the Sabermetrics you want, but the stats that still get people paid the big bucks are HR’s, RBI’s, BA, wins, ERA, etc or any combination thereof. I’m not saying it’s right, but no matter…Swisher is not a $100 mil player. Do YOU think he is???
the vast majority of ballclubs do not pay any attention at all to RBI
Odawg, I think Klaus is referring to the fact that you used a plural possessive in “RBI’s”. It should have been “RBIs” or even just RBI, since it stands for “runs batted in”, and the plural is already there.
That being said, RBI is the best measure of a hitter’s effectiveness. As they say, you can’t win without someone driving in the runs.
RBI is a good stat if you are playing fantasy baseball. Not a great stat when you are judging a player’s monetary value for the next 7 years…
Gotta disagree with you guys. What is lost in all this sabregeek stuff is that you still have to get across the plate. Runs win games, those who drive in runs win games. There are other factors, sure, but without run producers, you got nothing.
no one says that. they say you can’t win without scoring runs. that’s true, but RBI is a terrible way to measure run production
you are 15-20 years behind. virtually everyone paid to make baseball decisions today completely and totally ignores RBI specifically because it is a worthless measure of a player’s ability to produce runs, the dinosaurs who couldn’t figure this out have been fired and passed over
I love Nick Swisher… But it seems like another RF will be patrolling in Yankee stadium Next year. Good luck! and play hard in the playoffs!
Swishes’ Wishes.
Does he get to take New Yankee Stadium with him?
2012 Home: .801 OPS w/ 8 hrs Road: .877 OPS w/ 10 hrs. (202/186)
2011 Home: .853 OPS w/ 12 hrs Road: .792 OPS w/ 11 HRS (260/266 AB)
2010 Home: .854 OPS w/ 15 hrs Road: .885 OPS w/ 14 hrs (279/287 AB)
I think it would be unfair to say that he’s a product of NYS.
Nice research!
.271/.356/.482 line for Swisher (so far) w/ 18 Hr’s
.296/.388/.532 line for Werth w/ 27 Hr’s in 2010
Werth wasn’t Werth $126MM by a long shot in my book. Swisher’s not going to be signed for this amount. No where near it. I’d expect that he’s going to have to settle on something or he’s going to be a free agent ’til he does. Sort of like the Derrek Lee situation except with a younger, little bit higher caliber player.
Swisher is indeed comparable to Werth…but Werth is way overpaid. He was also expected to sign in the ballpark of $60/4y until the Nationals lost their mind and signed him to $126/7y.
Not saying werths deal was fair but he is a much stronger defensive player…like everyone has been saying 4 or 5 years for 15 mil/years seems fair
Swisher isn’t a game changer. He is as good as he is going to get. I think 5/70m at best.
No you haven’t. Ethier is the better player when healthy
You will lose this arguement.
And I want a toilet made out of solid gold, but some things just aren’t in the cards now, are they?
Is Swisher decent defensively at 1B? Because the Dodgers could certainly use him there… at least once he realizes he isn’t worth $100m.
It’s takes a great man to be able to stand up and admit that. And honestly, it’s not even your fault. If you follow ESPN or fantasy he gets extremely overhyped..even though I’m not sure why. Ethier plays like 130 games a year of terrible defense and great hitting vs RHP and replacement level hitting vs LHP. He’s basically what Brad Hawpe was a few years ago. And there’s really no defense for how Kenny Williams handled the Swisher trades. I feel for you there.
I think he is a good ballplayer, but if he signs for any more then a Willingham contract the team is going to wind up regretting it.
His on-the-field performance will obviously give him most of his money, but I think his personality and vibe that he brings to his team will get him more money. He is such a loose guy, always happy, and always cheering teammates on. He knows how to keep the players feeling good. I’d give him 5yrs/$75M.
What a joke. I’ll bet any money he can’t play any where else without a stacked lineup like he’s had.
He produced pretty well in Oakland
The way to look at it is to find out who else might be available for $18 million per year or less with similar or better numbers. The other possibility is to look for a lighter-hitting outfielder – perhaps keep Ichiro – and grab Mike Napoli for catching, a definite weak spot.
I’d gamble on Josh Hamilton before giving Swisher that kind of money. Letting DeWayne Wise go for two months of Ichiro is starting to look like a very bad move.
Ichiro as a Yankee – .312 AVG and .333 OBP
DeWayne Wise – .262 AVG and .286 OBP
a soon to be unsigned free agent
i like swisher alot…..but i don’t think the yankees are gonna pay an enormous amount to retain him….since it appears they want to stay around the $189 millon mark…..they’re stuck with over $30 million they have to pay arod…….an option would be to sign suzuki to play right…….they’d have a great outfield with him,gardner in left and granderson in center……..plus they would have more speed, and the possibility to manufacture more runs.
Gardner is injury prone and WAY overated. He has absolutely NO baseball instinct. The fastest man in baseball gets picked off, or is too AFRAID to run when they need him to. Swisher will be in pinstripes next year, and so will Suzuki.
although I agree with mostly all you said about Gardner . I don’t believe Swisher will be a Yankee next year, he is only a mediocre outfielder at best.
Swisher has three things going for him but all together they won’t bring Werth’s contract value. He’s good outfielder and makes a good supporting 1st baseman. Or Reverse, and he’s a switch hitter. Werth was grossly over paid and I think those days are pretty much a thing of the past. Too many teams have been burned. The Yankees have also started to scale back on salaries, plus Hal Steinbrenner has Cano and Granderson to worry about when trying to resign Swisher. Another team might be more ready to pay for his services, but not Werth money in my opinion. Swisher is what, 32 yrs old? With a bad offensive playoff record to boot, 12 to 15 mil over 4 yrs I think is about it.
Yankees will stay under the threshold but will sign Swisher to a career ending contract in Pinstripes IMO Even having these discussion so early in the game is a “tell” Swish is NYY – NYY is the
The Bleacher Creatures and the
The Bleacher Creatures loooove Swish!.
Not worth even close to that much for 2 months max at hitting well in a whole season. Let him go elsewhere.
Just lost an small bit if respect for Swish.
or….the yanks could just sign josh hamilton and get 40 home runs alone at yankee stadium. tell nick it was nice knowing him.
I love swih but he should be careful. Ichiro is here now and gardiner is waiting in the wings to get a position back for a whole lot less money
Bad idea Nick!
Swisher is a good player, but with respect to him, he is not as good stat wise as Werth. Werth has decent postseason stats, partcularly good power stats.