The White Sox have traded Nick Swisher (&
Kanekoa Texeira) to the New York Yankees today. In return, the Sox get
Jeff Marquez, Wilson Betemit, & Jhonny Nunez. Kenny Williams has
done a lot to gain the trust of Sox fans over the last few years, but I
think this is a terrible trade. Nick obviously had a bad year, but
there are many signs that it was a fluke. His BABIP (batting average on
balls in play) was a career low .249, but his line drive percentage was
20.9%, which was a career high. Taken together, it sounds like he was
hitting the ball harder than ever, but hitting them right at people.
This isn't likely to continue. I'd expect something close to
250/370/470 from Swisher in 2009. which is plenty valuable from a
player as versatile as he is.
The
return for Nick is terrible. Wilson Betemit had plenty of promise as a
youngster in the Braves system, and has shown flashes of potential at
the major league level, but has never really put it together, and
likely never will. Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez are, at best, fungible
middle reliever types. I do not like this trade at all. We'll miss you
Nick!
