Thunder wrote:Swisher traded to the White Sox for 3 prospects. It's going to be a long year.

Thunder wrote:Swisher traded to the White Sox for 3 prospects. It's going to be a long year.

Code: Select all

Nick Swisher Traded To White Sox
Baseball Digest Daily is reporting that the A's have traded Nick Swisher to the White Sox for Gio Gonzalez, Fautino De Los Santos, and Ryan Sweeney.  I'd heard about the Sweeney part but hadn't been able to confirm it.  This is a fascinating trade - let's discuss.

I have to imagine the White Sox plan to use Swisher as their center fielder for the next couple of years; he did play 59 games there in '07.  Kenny Williams stuck to his word about adding OBP to his team, picking up Swisher and Carlos Quentin to fill out his outfield.  Swisher, 27, is signed at a very reasonable price: $3.5MM in '08, $5.3MM in '09, $6.75MM in '10, $9MM in '11, and a $10.25MM club option for '12 with a $1MM buyout.  The option gets a $1.75MM bump if Swisher is top five for the MVP voting during the contract.  He has limited no-trade protection for 2011-12.

The White Sox paid a massive price to get their man, however.  Pitchers De Los Santos and Gonzalez were their two best prospects, according to Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein.  De Los Santos is said to have a huge ceiling, whereas Gio is a solid lefty who's nearly big-league ready.  Goldstein ranked Sweeney eighth on the team, but projects him as more of a fourth-outfielder type (he was once very highly regarded though).

If it wasn't obvious with the Dan Haren trade, the A's are in full-fledged rebuilding mode.  Joe Blanton, Huston Street, and Mark Ellis could be next to go.


According to ESPN's Buster Olney, an agreement is in place for the A's to send Kotsay to the Braves for reliever Joey Devine. The A's will also eat $5.325MM of Kotsay's '08 salary, leaving the Braves on the hook for only $2MM. Essentially Billy Beane bought Devine.

sfsfsfgiants wrote:You guys are going to be joining the Niners, Raiders, and Giants in the Bay Area's last place party.

And some are the work of general manager rebuilding through trades. Billy Beane knew the Athletics had hit a crossroads, and of those seven players the A's have in the Baseball Prospectus Top 100, all but right-handed pitcher Trevor Cahill came by way of for trades involving Mark Mulder, Dan Haren and Nick Swisher; of course, the A's No. 1 prospect,Daric Barton and Haren came to the A's in the Mulder trade, while Haren in turn brought three top 100 youngsters from the Diamondbacks.