Let’s be clear about one important fact about the Boston Red Sox—they are not rebuilding.
They are re-setting.
Rebuilding is what small market teams do. Rebuilding is what perennial losers do year after year. The Red Sox are neither of those.
With Ben Cherington’s bold statement on Saturday morning in unloading the contracts of Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett along with prized piece Adrian Gonzalez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, he simply hit the reset button.
By doing so, Cherington gives the Red Sox financial flexibility, something that clearly hamstrung the franchise with the three contracts that headed off to Hollywood.
Now, the question remains—what next?
Well, pitching should absolutely be the priority, considering that Red Sox starters rank 26th in the majors.
But other pieces will be needed as well, and one of those pieces just could be New York Yankees right fielder Nick Swisher.
The Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo suggested in his Sunday Notes column that Swisher will be on the Red Sox radar, provided that he won’t ask for a Jason Werth-type deal. That’s exactly the type of contract that Cherington will be avoiding.
But a three-or-four year deal could certainly be palatable for a proven veteran like Swisher.
Here are five reasons why Swisher could be a great fit for the Red Sox.