Yankees: Nick Swisher Retires And Joins FOX As An Analyst

Former Yankees outfielder and current Spring Training Instructor, Nick Swisher, announced his retirement from baseball. He will be joining FOX-TV as an analyst.

Yankees outfielder, Nick Swisher, did not reach the decision to retire from baseball easily. He agonized over it and, just last year tried to make a comeback with the Yankees. This followed an ill-fated comeback try with the Cleveland Indians but ended with the same results.

Nick Swisher was passed over when the time came to call up a replacement outfielder/first baseman, and the writing began to appear on the wall for Swisher.

Swisher wrote a letter to The Player’s Tribune, the go-to outlet for athletes created by Derek Jeter, in which he lamented:

"This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I mean, your body tells you when it’s time to call it quits. And this off-season, my body was screaming, “The dream is over, baby!”"

Some go easy, and some go hard. But for nearly all, there is life after baseball. Nick Swisher went hard, but he has found a soft landing at FOX. Because if you ever went to a Yankees game when Swisher was playing for us and you wondered where you could find him on the field, it was easy. Just look for the guy who is always smiling and jostling with the fans.

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Swisher is destined to be a star at FOX, and it’ll be interesting to see how he spars with (if they let him) Alex Rodriguez, who, as it’s turning out, is a TV natural.

Here’s the rub, though. As a first-time invitee to Spring Training by the team as an instructor, this was supposed to go in another direction. With all the same attributes that he’s bringing to FOX, he was expected to be moving in the direction of becoming a Yankees coach, or at least I thought so.

Alas, he finds another home. But, at one time he had another home here in New York with the Yankees. He explains the circumstances:

"Keep in mind, the whole time he’s talking, I’m thinking, Holy s***. This is Brian Cashman. This is the New York Yankees.To this day, I don’t know why he had so much faith in me. He must have seen something in me that I couldn’t see myself. But I’m so grateful that he did, because I feel like that move put me on the map. Once I got to New York, everybody was so amazing that it just allowed my personality to come out."

So, the gig at FOX is exactly what Swisher needs at the moment. But, rest assured, at some point in time, Nick Swisher will feel the pang of putting on a major league uniform again.

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And based on what he’s said, there should be no doubt that at some point in the future, Nick Swisher will be seen again in uniform as the first base coach for the New York Yankees. But in the meantime, enjoy the gig, Nick. You deserve it.