Posted By Jeff Fletcher on January 8, 2009 6:46 am

Last week I got the nifty idea that the Giants ought to go after Nick Swisher, so I emailed my good buddy Lowell Cohn and fed it to him for his blog. (It was one of the moments that spawned this blog. I thought “Why am I giving all my good stuff away?”) Anyway, quoting myself here, this is what I wrote to Lowell:

I think he’s probably available because the Yankees got him before they signed Mark Teixeira. I’m not sure if they see Swisher fitting into the outfield, but they’ve already got Damon, Matsui and Melky Cabrera (and Xavier Nady, who I omitted) out there, so they could certainly afford to part with him. Swisher’s best position is first base, so he’d be a good fit for the Giants that way. He’s also excellent defensively. Now, he’s coming off a bad year with the White Sox (.219), but in his bad year he still hit 24 homers and drew 82 walks (both would have easily been team bests on the Giants). He’s only 28, and I’d rather have a 28 year old coming off a bad year than a 38-year-old coming off a good year. For the past four years, he’s averaged 25+ homers. Maybe a return to his comfort zone in the Bay Area would help him. I think sticking him at 1b and keeping him there would also help. He never much cared for bouncing between OF and 1b, which he’s done all his career. He’s also signed for three more years, plus an option (2009: $5.3M, 2010:$6.75M, 2011:$9M so it’s not a huge financial gamble, relatively speaking.

That was a few days ago. Since then, I’ve seen confirmation from two other respected national columnists, Tracy Ringolsby of the Rocky Mountain News and Joel Sherman of the New York Post, that the Yankees are in fact shopping Swisher. It seems the Yankees would rather trade Xavier Nady, though, because he’s only signed for one more year. Frankly, Nady is probably overvalued and Swisher is undervalued right now, because of the seasons each had last year. I’d rather have Swisher, and I’m guessing, so would the Giants. Also, Swisher can play first and Nady is just an outfielder.

The real question, of course, is whether the Giants seriously have a chance to get Swisher. I’m guessing not. What do the Yankees really need from the Giants? Other than Cain and Lincecum. To make the deal, the Giants would likely have to trade one or more of their good prospects. Certainly a package including Madison Bumgarner or Tim Alderson would get the deal done, but I wouldn’t trade either of them. Wouldn’t trade Buster Posey either (and he can’t be traded anyway, since he hasn’t been in the organization for 12 months yet). Anyone else in the organization would be on the table in a Swisher deal, for me.

How ’bout Kevin Pucetas and Jonathan Sanchez for Swisher? That leaves the Giants putting all of their eggs in Noah Lowry’s basket for the No. 5 spot, but that’s OK. No. 5 starters grow on trees. They can dig up one somewhere if Lowry’s not ready.