Oakland A's Deal Nick Swisher for Top Prospects
Prior to the Winter Meetings, Oakland General Manager Billy Beane was torn between going for a playoff appearance in 2008 or reloading and building for the future. With the trades of Haren and Swisher, it is very clear which direction the A's are heading. This means closer Huston Street, starter Joe Blanton, reliever Alan Embree and second baseman Mark Ellis are all likely to be trade bait from now on.
The A's could lose 100 games this season, especially if they continue to dump veterans for prospects. Meanwhile, the Swisher trade clearly indicates that the White Sox are going for a playoff spot this season.
Chicago earlier this off-season acquired Carlos Quentin, Scott Linebrink and Orlando Cabrera. Now, they add Swisher, who posted a career-high .381 on-base percentage last season. The White Sox can expect even better things in the future from Swisher, who turned 27 in November and who has been hurt by his home ballpark in Oakland.
In his four-year Major League career, Swisher has a .242/.357/.451 line in McAfee Coliseum but a .260/.365/.475 mark in neutral road ballparks. He has done very well in a small sample of games at U.S. Cellular Field, where he has posted a line of .378/.455/.568 in 44 plate appearances.
Swisher could see a jump in home runs in 2008. Last year he hit 22 homers, down 13 from his total in 2006. McAfee Coliseum was the second-worst park for home runs in the American League last year. According to the park factors listed at ESPN, it had a HR factor of .786, or it could home run production by over 21 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. Cellular was the second-best HR park in the AL, with a park factor of 1.22 for the 2007 season.
In return for Swisher, the A's received outfielder Ryan Sweeney, left-hander Gio Gonzalez and right-hander Fautino De Los Santos from the White Sox. Prospect maven John Sickels listed Gonzalez and De Los Santos as the top two prospects in Chicago's system, while Sweeney was fifth.
Gonzalez went 9-7 with a 3.18 ERA for Double-A Birmingham last season. More importantly he fanned 185 batters (which led all of Minor League Baseball) in 150 innings while allowing just 10 home runs. He is a lefty fireballer on the cusp of the Majors.
De Los Santos went 10-5 with a 2.65 ERA split between two Class-A clubs in 2007. He fanned 153 batters in 122.1 innings and allowed just eight homers. De Los Santos was named the South Atlantic League's Most Outstanding Major League Prospect. He is further away than Gonzalez but has a live fastball and a curve he can throw for strikes.
Sweeney split time between Triple-A and the Majors last season. He is a corner outfielder without great power and is probably destined to be more of a fourth-outfielder type.
The White Sox gave up a lot of talent, but in return received a player entering the prime of his career in Swisher. It is difficult to give up two pitching prospects as good as Gonzalez and De Los Santos in the same deal, especially without receiving a pitcher in return, but the White Sox struggled offensively in 2007 and needed to add a big bat.
From the White Sox perspective, if Swisher leads the team to the playoffs in the next three-to-five years, this will be a good trade. But in a division with Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota, how likely will a playoff spot be?
Looking at the deal from Oakland's standpoint, the club was a longshot to make the playoffs this year. The team is in the middle of building a new ballpark in Freemont and Gonzalez and De Los Santos could be fixtures of the next great A's team.
This is a trade that should provide dividends for both teams. The White Sox should clearly win the deal in 2008, but by 2011 fans may be wondering how Chicago gave up two premier pitchers in the same deal.
With free-agent pitchers commanding a premium each season, it was a coup for the A's to acquire another team's top two hurlers, especially ones as valued as Gonzalez and De Los Santos. Swisher is a fine player but ultimately I think Oakland will win this deal.
Sources:
Chicago White Sox transactions
Published by Brian Joura
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4 Comments
Post a CommentI know I lack sports literacy but it amazes me that you can predict the number of games they could lose before the season even starts!
And I really don't have anything more intelligent to add because when it comes to this topic I feel way out...int the outfield of knowledge. But I believe you did a super job with this one, very detailed.
I wish I knew as much about this subject as you do. I'm in awe!
Hadn't heard of this move. Thanks for the tip. Beane's rebuilding of his team through trades seems a little different than the homegrown approach he used to build the A's into a successful franchise. He seems pretty shrewd, so I think your pick of 2011 is right on.