Merry Swishmas: Part 2

George Carlin had a bit once where he said:

Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!’

Large baseball contracts are the same way as they make fans happy when they are announced “I’m saving the franchise” and when they are ended “I’m saving money.” The Indians made the biggest possible move to help the 2016 season and save some money today when they traded Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn to the Braves for Chris Johnson.

This, or a similar deal to it, had been rumored during Trade Deadline discussions, but nothing came of it. Today, the rumors and the official announcement happened within a half an hour. The details were confirmed by Jeff Passan and the Indians have also officially announced the deal.

Source: Indians sending more than $10M to Braves along with Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher in deal, with Chris Johnson going to Cleveland.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 7, 2015

This is essentially a salary swap and the numbers work out as listed below:

While the total dollars are fairly equivalent, what makes this such a great deal is that Swisher and Bourn are being paid more per season (both their totals are just for 2016) and have vesting options that will cause problems in 2016. If either comes to the plate 550 times and they pass a physical (the safety valve of the original deals), they will be under contract for 2017 as well for a total of $12M (Bourn) and $14M (Swisher). This leads to a difficult situation where you want the players to succeed because they are being paid and are on the roster, but you don’t want them to be so good that you would have to pay them for another year.

The Braves will now have to deal with this issue and whether they want to cut either player half way through next season or risk them using these options. While Swisher is likely incapable of playing that many games because of his knees, Bourn seems in fine health and could still be an everyday player next year.

Much like Swisher, Johnson has been dealing with injuries all season and has played in just 56 games. One advantage he does have over the other two is in his youth, as he is only 30 now while Swisher will be 35 soon and Bourn will be 33. With this, there is at least a little hope that Johnson will recover from his injuries faster and more completely than Swisher has and might even be a positive force in the lineup.

Where Johnson fits in that lineup is another question entirely. He is a right handed hitter who hasn’t had a great year at the plate since 2013, his first year in Atlanta, but could potentially be a solid bottom of the lineup hitter. What he will likely not do is supplant Giovanny Urshela at third base. On defense, Johnson has been a slightly above average first baseman over his 39 games there, but at third he has been atrocious, giving up 32 more runs than the average 3B in 623 games.

Luckily for the Indians, they have a DH and unluckily for the Braves, they don’t. Both Swisher and Johnson are best suited for this off-the-field role, but only Cleveland can take advantage. This further exemplifies why it was a great deal outside of the money. While he may not be great, Johnson can play still physically play two positions in the field while Swisher can’t really play any on a regular basis.

While in the short term it is likely that Johnson will take Bourn’s place on the roster (Swisher was still on the DL when the trade was made), this move should open up some opportunities for current minor league outfielders like James Ramsey and Tyler Naquin. The combination of Jerry Sands, Ryan Raburn and Tyler Holt is simply not going to cut it in 2016 if the Indians want to contend and this trade was the first step in opening up the roster for the future.

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