There wasn’t much hope for Nick Swisher‘s season but the Indians made it official today, announcing that he underwent surgery on both knees. On the bright side, the eight to 10 weeks of recovery should allow him to return to full health by the end of October, giving him a full offseason to work to recover from his disappointing 2014 campaign.

Swisher ends his miserable season with a .208 batting average, the eighth worst in franchise history and the lowest since Dave Duncan (who went on to become Tony LaRussa’s longtime pitching coach) hit an even .200 in 1974.


Swisher is still owed $30 million over the next two seasons guaranteed, and has a vesting option for 2017 which will be easy to achieve so long as he stays healthy.

The bad news of Swisher’s contract is obvious: it’s a ton of money for a player who didn’t come close to earning it this season. The good news is the vesting option, which gives him $14 million reasons to work hard to stay in shape. He obviously won’t come close to another $14 million contract if he fails to earn that vesting option, so there’s a nice incentive for him to work hard to remain productive as his career winds down.

As frustrating as Swisher was this year, I hope the fans don’t turn on him too soon. We may have a lot of Swisher left to endure, and it would certainly help to keep him happy and motivated.

6 Comments

  • McNabbulousness says:

    two knees? i heard he had surgery on his brotator cuff.

  • D.P. Roberts says:

    Swisher had 210 hits over his first two years as an Indian. He made $26 million over those two years, or $123,809 per hit.

    By contrast, Michael Brantley made a tiny bit over $2 million over that span, and has gotten 307 hits (so far) over that span, or $6514 per hit.

    I know “$ per hit” is a made-up statistic, but by that measure, Michael Brantley is exactly 19 times more productive than Nick Swisher.

  • Kevin says:

    Bro, what does this mean for Brohio bro?

  • mayer501 says:

    I hate to sound so negative about the guy, but it really seems to me that Swisher is one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, Cleveland is currently(only just) out of the playoff picture. If a guy you count on to produce does so poorly, it’s a massive hole in the team mentally, and on the field.

    Still, I do hope he recovers and can help us out next year, but Brohio seems to be quite a bust.

    • Peter says:

      It seems to me that the lack of Masterson is the biggest reason for being out of contention. We needed him to be a number one or reasonably close to it. So it comes down to starting pitching… again.

  • D.P. Roberts says:

    I guess Swisher has a problem with bronies.