Buckeye Offense Falters In Kansas Showdown
December 23, 2012Flashback Video: Dandy Marte Strikes Out Nick Swisher
December 23, 2012As first reported by the New York Daily News‘ Mark Feinsand, the Indians and Nick Swisher have agreed to a 4 year deal worth $56 million.
BREAKING: Nick Swisher has agreed to a four-year, $56 million deal with the Indians. Vesting $14M option for a 5th year could make it $70M.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 23, 2012
The deal also is reported to have a $14 million vesting option for a fifth year could make the deal worth up to $70 million over five years. The vesting option looks to be based on plate appearances in the fourth year of the deal, and is “easily” attainable, according to Mark Feinsand:
Swisher's $14 million vesting option for 2017 is based on plate appearances in 2016. If he's healthy, it should happen easily.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) December 23, 2012
The signing will also result in the loss of the Indians second-round draft pick in the Rule 4 draft this coming June (their first round pick is in the top-10, and is therefore protected).
Swisher is a West Virginia native who attended The Ohio State University. He was a first round pick by the Oakland Athletics in the 2002 draft.
The deal represents the second-largest contract in team history, behind only Travis Hafner’s four-year $57 million contract extension signed in 2007. With respect to free agents, this is the largest deal in the club’s 112 year history.
Swisher batted .272/.364/.473 in 537 at bats for the Yankees in 2012, along with 24 home runs and 93 runs batted in. He will likely fill the void in RF left behind in the wake of the Shin-Soo Choo trade.
[Related: The Pitch to Swish]
12 Comments
Nice to see an agressive offseason; excited to see what Francona can do with this team.
The Indians just spent how much? Really?? I guess the Mayans knew what they were talking about after all.
2013 Opening Day Lineup:
LF Brantley
SS Cabrera
RF Swisher
1B Reynolds
DH Santana
2B Kipnis
3B Chisenhall
CF Stubbs
C Marson
Good to see the tribe doing something we needed this
A nice Christmas present for Antonetti and friends not sure what plan b would have been but the work isn’t done they still need a starter or two. But compared to a year ago this offseason has been a veritable shopping spree starting with Francona. Now lets just hope the players play well.
Over/under on strikeouts? Is a 1,000 possible?
They still will sign a DH, Marson isn’t going to be the starting catcher.
Good too see them going out and making some noise for once. As you said though, doesn’t mean anything unless these moves translate into W’s.
Good job, Indians. Swisher is worth $14 mil/yr healthy and he is durable. Not to mention an instant fan favorite. Tribe can now do a little ‘over-spending’ in the Draft now that we don’t have a 2nd round pick (top 10 picks protected).
agree….barring no more moves, they will give McGuiness a shot at DH before giving Marson full-time catcher.
Now that Swisher and Reynolds are on board, it maybe time to try Santana at the #2 spot following Kipnis as lead off. I hated Tony LaRussa but one thing he did that was great was use that #2 spot as a power/OBP bat. I wasn’t onboard with it last year because we didn’t have any power behind him, but that has changed now….
2B Kipnis
C Santana
RF Swisher
1B Reynolds
SS Cabrera
CF Stubbs
LF Brantley
DH McGuiness
3B Chisenhall
Get your best on-base guys up before Swisher to maximize his production. With all of our strikeouts coming, we need to maximize our return on homers. Minimize solo shots, get the on-base guys on before Swish and Reynolds.
This makes me happy, yet I can’t help but question whether this is a false euphoria. We always seem to be the team that gets the superstar on the decline. I hope Swisher has 5 great years.