If the New York Yankees want to keep soon-to-be free agent outfielder Nick Swisher after this season, the organization may need to offer him a "Jayson Werth like" contract, sources are telling CBS Sports' Jon Heyman.
Swisher, the very likable switch hitter with power, may not get an offer in the range of $126 million for seven seasons -- that's close to what Werth got from the Washington Nationals' two seasons ago -- but he's willing to try.
Second-hand or not, some Yankees people have heard that's the figure Swisher is thinking about and may at least shoot for, and one other source who's spoken to Swisher said that, indeed, Swisher has shown real interest in Werth's deal.
Currently, Swisher is batting .275 (.356 OBP) with 18 home runs and 69 RBI with the Yankees. Those numbers don't seem to be productive enough to earn the 31-year-old, who's not very fast and plays OK defense, a mega deal. But, says Heyman, Swisher's case will be made with the sabermetric stat of WAR.
Werth was 31 when he went into his free-agent offseason, Swisher will be, too. Werth had a 19.2 WAR, Swisher has a 19.0 WAR now. I'm no WAR expert, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Swisher's WAR will be somewhere in the range of Werth's 19.2 by season's end, and in fact, perhaps even exactly Werth's 19.2.
It has been reported that the Yankees want to offer Swisher a contract in the offseason. However, its highly doubtful the franchise will be willing to offer that much to its third-option in the outfield.
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