Michael Bourn was thrilled to be back at the top of the Braves’ batting order Saturday, and Nick Swisher radiated so much energy that one might have thought he was a rookie call-up instead of a 34-year-old on surgically repaired knees.
The newest Braves, a pair of aging former All-Star outfielders acquired from the Indians in Friday’s trade for Chris Johnson, flew in on the same flight Saturday and were thrust into the lineup hours later against the Marlins.
“Man, I’m stoked,” said Swisher, 34, whose ebullient personality has not been affected by spending the past two months on the disabled list with knee inflammation (he had surgery on both knees in August 2014). “This is a brand-new fresh start for me, to be able to come down here to an organization that I’ve been watching since I was a kid. So for myself, along with Mike, I know we’re super-excited to be here. Bring some energy, bring some passion, and hopefully help this team win.”
Bourn, a 32, an All-Star center fielder with the Braves in 2012, was in the lineup Saturday in left field, a position he played once this season with Cleveland but otherwise not since 2007, when he was a Phillies rookie.
“I’m back, and I’m happy to be here,” said Bourn, who hit .274 with a .348 OBP, nine homers and 42 stolen bases for the Braves in 2012, and didn’t do as well in any of those categories in past three seasons in Cleveland, in part due to hamstring woes. “I liked my time here. We had a good team, good clubhouse, good atmosphere to play in. I’m from the South (Houston), I’m playing down South, so I like it.
“I’m happy to be back. I enjoyed it, and hopefully I’ll enjoy it again.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he didn’t even have to ask Bourn to play left. Center fielder Cameron Maybin is enjoying a career-best season, and to have both speedsters in the lineup, one was going to have to move to left field, where Maybin had played in only 10 games, all in his 2007 rookie season.
“These guys are itching to play,” Gonzalez said of Bourn and Swisher. “I spoke to both of them. Before I even came out and asked (Bourn) to play left field, he volunteered – ‘Hey, I’ll play left. Let the young cat play center, I’m tired of running around out there.’ Good for him. Let him get some life back in his legs and run around the basepaths.”
Swisher, 34, was in the lineup at first base, a position he’s played plenty, although none this season in the 30 games he played in May and June before going on the DL. He’ll likely get most of the playing time at first base until Freddie Freeman (oblique strain) returns from the DL.
“I feel really good, man,” said Swisher, who hit .311 (19-for-61) with four doubles, a home run and a .432 OBP in 18 minor-league rehab games. “It’s been a long road, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve been at this for a little bit now, but that knee surgery, man – wow…. But to be able to get over that hump and get back and starting to feel normal again, man, I’m just super-excited to get out there, get dirty, scrape myself up, play some baseball.”
He said he tried to rush back too soon this season from surgery on both knees on the same day 12 months ago. Swisher posted career-worsts in average (.208), OBP (.278) and slugging percentage (.331) in 97 games last season. He hit .198 with a .261 OBP, .297 slugging and two homers in 30 games (111 PAs) this season before returning to the DL.
Braves scouts saw him in several rehab games in the past two weeks and that he had regained some bat speed and was moving well in the outfield. Once Freeman returns, Swisher will presumably be backup outfielder/first baseman.
“We’re coming up on that year right now (since surgery),” he said, “and like the doc said, ‘Swish you’re going to start feeling really good about a year in’ (to recovery), and he was right. I tried to push it a little earlier in the year, and that was a mistake.”
Bourn, after hitting .263 with a .316 OBP and 23 steals in 130 games for the Indians in 2013 and .257/.314 with 10 steals in 106 games in 2014, had a .246 average, .313 OBP and 13 stolen bases in 95 games this season. He has been mediocre since leaving Atlanta.
He had shown signs of his old self recently, batting .370 (17-for-46) with six steals in his last 13 games.
“I’m not going to say it was great,” he said of his performance for Cleveland. “But I had times where I was good there, too. My speed is still there. My baseball game is still there. Nothing’s changed.”
Swisher and Bourn signed four-year free-agent contracts with the Indians before the 2013 season, Swisher’s deal worth $56 million and Bourn’s worth $48 million. They’re owed a combined $29 million next season in the final year of those contracts, and the Indians gave the Braves $10 million in the trade to offset the difference in what those two were owed and the $19.5 million that Johnson has left on his three-year, $23.5 million contract.
