Yankees: Remembering Brian Cashman’s Best Trades on His Birthday

4. Wilson Betemit for Nick Swisher

Somehow, the New York Yankees jumpstarted their ’09 World Series hopes with Nick Swisher.

Sometimes (often?), it’s the small deals you never expect to matter that end up dictating the trajectory of an entire season.

On Nov. 13, 2008, Cashman pulled off a classic heist when he imported Nick Swisher, coming off a down year with the White Sox, and surrendered utility man Wilson Betemit, 2004 first-rounder Jeff Marquez, and Jhonny Nunez (who spells his first name incorrectly).

Swish, who hit just .219 with 24 homers in 2008 with a Sox team that did make the postseason, carried the Yankees’ lineup immediately upon his arrival in ’09 (without A-Rod behind him), and finished the year with 29 homers and a .371 OBP, putting an iconic stamp on the staid franchise. If Swish doesn’t team up with AJ Burnett and start pieing people in the face, do the 2009 Yankees reach their eventual highest heights? Truly, we can’t guarantee it.

Without Cashman’s buy-low move, the 2009 season wouldn’t have felt nearly as magical.