Nationals Talking to Yankees About Acquiring Xavier Nady, Nick Swisher

Here is the latest installment of "As the General Manager Turns."

A couple of weeks after losing Mark Teixiera to the New York Yankees, and a couple of days since publicly acknowledging that Adam Dunn and Orlando Hudson are now out of the team's price range, Nationals.com reporter Bill Ladson is reporting that the Yankees and Nationals are in trade discussions for outfielder Xavier Nady and first baseman Nick Swisher.

Trying to acquire one isn't too surprising, but going for both is amazing if true.

But are they really trying to make this trade?

Just a day after reports of team frustration over the escalating prices for Dunn and Hudson were published, and reports that the Nationals no longer were interested in either player, Washington Post reporter Thomas Boswell reported that the Nationals were actually more interested in the two players.

It's all part of the negotiation process, he said.

I don't know.

I've known Bill Ladson for a couple of years and had the opportunity to do an extensive interview with him for my Nationals' website. I don't think the team would feed false information to their own guy and I know Bill is very careful about what he reports.

True, he's been wrong before, but he's been right far more often.

I think this is a real story.

The Nationals have been after Xavier Nady since Nick Johnson's season ended early last year. He is a 30-year-old right-hander who has averaged .280-21-78 over his career for a 162-game season. The last two years, he's averaged .290-25-96.

So he's getting better as he matures. That's a good thing.

He was selected in the fourth round of the 1997 amateur draft by the Cardinals but chose to attend Cal Berkley instead. By the time he left three years later, he had set the all-time Pac-10 record for slugging percentage with a .729 mark.

He was selected in the second round of the amateur draft in 2000 by the Padres, and played for them until he was traded to the Mets for outfielder Mike Cameron in November 2005. In July of 2006, he was traded to the Pirates for pitchers Oliver Perez and Roberto Hernandez.

Two years later, the New York Yankees acquired Nady and pitcher Damaso Marte from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Dan McCutchen and Jeff Karsters.

His Thebaseballcube.com scouting statistics look good but not great. The following numbers are based on a maximum of 100 points.

Power: 95, Speed: 15, Contact: 44, Patience: 32

Nady has problems with making contact and has little patience at the plate, verified by his .335 OBP and his strikeout totals which exceed 100 per year.

Nady has superb power, and a generally good average for a power hitter, plays all three outfield positions and first, and he is a top-notch run producer.

That's good.

He has very little plate discipline, no mobility at all, and strikes out far too often to ever become an All-Star.

That's bad.

That said, he would be much better than current right fielder Austin Kearns.

Of the two, Nady will come cheaper because he will be a free agent after the 2009 season. Nationals' fans will just have to accept the fact that he'll want to test the free agent waters after the season is over and will likely move on.

Can anyone say Alfonso Soriano?

Nick Swisher is the 28-year-old son of former major league catcher Steve Swisher, who I'm sad to say, I remember well.

Nick was a star football player in West Virginia and was recruited to play safety by Notre Dame. But he wanted to play baseball and turned down many football scholarship offers.

When he wasn't selected in the major league amateur draft after graduation, he chose to attend Ohio State University and play baseball.

He was the Big 10 Freshman of the Year and was a Big-10 All-Star his sophomore season.

Swisher was the Big 10 Player of the Year in 2002 and was selected by the Oakland Athletics with their first-round pick received as compensation for the loss of outfielder Johnny Damon.

Swisher played with the Athletics until he was traded to the Chicago White Sox for three minor leaguers. Swisher played in Chicago just one year before he and a minor league pitcher were traded to the New York Yankees for utility man Wilson Betemit and two minor league pitchers. One of them was former National Jhonny Nunez.

Swisher isn’t as complete a player as Nady, but he would be a welcome upgrade from the multiple question marks the Nationals currently have at first base.

Swisher has averaged .244-28-86 over a 162 game season during his career with a .354 OBP and a .451 SLG percent. He is a rare left-hander who hits lefties better than righties; he’s averaged .253 against lefties and .243 against right-handers.

Thebaseballcube.com scouting statistics for Swisher: Power: 95, Speed: 11, Contact: 27, Patience: 96

Swisher has good power, great patience and lousy contact which is very obvious when looking at his 143 strikeouts per season.

But, Swisher has great power from both sides of the plate, which would help the Nationals who are hamstrung with an almost total right handed hitting lineup. He is very patient and is one of the best clutch hitters in the major leagues.

His hustle reminds old-timers like me of Pete Rose, and he is very smooth with his glove.

His problems are pretty simple. He doesn’t often hit the ball when he swings and he gets very reckless at times, at the plate, in the field, and on the bases.

Nonetheless, he’d still be an asset for the Nationals. He could play every day or form some kind of platoon with Nick Johnson if the latter is healthy.

Swisher would be a longer-term investment for the Nationals because he is signed through the 2011 season at $11 million per year. Accordingly, he'll cost the team more than Nady because he'll be under team control for two additional years.

Ladson is reporting that if the Nationals land Nady, he would be the team’s right fielder, and Elijah Dukes and Lastings Milledge would compete to win the center field job.

Wrong.

There is no way that the Nationals would 1) make either Dukes or Milledge a fourth outfielder and 2) there is no way that the Nationals won’t “allow” Dukes to win the job. His bat and upside are just too great for that to happen.

Because of his personal issues, Dukes has no real trade value, at least not at this point in his career.

Milledge, however is another story.

Josh Willingham is set in left, and if Nady is acquired, Dukes will be in center and Milledge will be traded for a starting pitcher.

Could this trade happen?

Yes, and the Nationals would probably trade Austin Kearns or Nick Johnson, who would be backups in New York. They would also have to give up two or three, maybe four minor leaguers as well.

Who?

I have no clue.

My guess is that it would have to be one player from the Jordan Zimmermann class, one from the Leonard Davis class, and one from the Justin Maxwell class.

Maybe even more than that.

It would be worth it though.

Take a look at the Nationals 2009 lineup if this trade happens (using the player’s 162 game averages):

1B- Nick Swisher: .244-28-86

2B- Ronnie Belliard: .275-13-68

SS- Cristian Guzman: .270-7-54

3B- Ryan Zimmerman: .282-21-94

LF- Josh Willingham: .266-25-85

CF- Elijah Dukes: .267-26-86 **

RF- Xavier Nady: .280-21-78

C- Jesus Flores: .252-12-81 ***

** I only used Dukes’ 2008 season expanded to a full season. I didn’t use his 2007 numbers because his arrest may have tainted his play last year.

*** These are Flores’ numbers based on a full season, but he’ll only play 130 games a year

To be sure, Swisher, Willingham, and Nady are a poor man’s murderer’s row. They have relatively low batting averages, high strikeout numbers and tend to miss when they swing at the ball.

But this offensive lineup reminds me a lot of last season’s Florida Marlins, and they won 84 games. If the Nationals don’t mortgage their future by giving up too many prospects, then I say: Make the deal.

This would be at the worst a .500 team and would probably win 85-86 games, and Nationals’ fans need that very much right now.