Carlos Beltran in right field for the New York Yankees next season instead of Nick Swisher? According to ESPN New York, the Yankees are -- at least for now -- leaving the door open for the former New York Met and current free agent to land in the Bronx.
Recently it has been considered a fait accompli that the Yankees were simply going to pick up Swisher's $10.25 million option for next season and be done with it. If true, the ESPN report puts some intrigue into the decision.
Thing is, while I am not a huge Swisher fan I will stand by the position I took recently that this would not be a good move for the Yankees.
If this were a trade I would likely be all for it, especially if Beltran -- like Swisher right now -- had only one year left on his contract.. Beltran has better career numbers than Swisher in almost every major category, and was better than the Yankee right fielder a season ago.
Here are last year's numbers:
Batting average (Beltran .300, Swisher .260), OBP (Beltran, .385-.374), Slugging (Beltran, .525-.449), OPS (Beltran, .910-.822).
Simply put, Beltran is a better play, both offensively and defensively.
Then, why isn't this a good move for the Yankees? Because Swisher is 31, and if the Yankees pick up his option he will have one more season left on his contract. He will give them decent production, like he always does. After that, the Yankees could choose to move in another direction. Beltran is 35, injury-prone, and would require a multi-year deal, and the Yankees have too many aging veteran on expensive multi-year deals already. They simply do not need another one.
I may not be in love with Swisher as a player. Keeping him, though, makes more sense than a splashy move for Beltran.