On March 23, 2009, Joe Girardi made what seemed at the time to be a fateful decision. The Yankees skipper called Nick Swisher into his office to let him know he’d lost out on the starting right field job. Despite turning some heads in camp, Swisher was still on the heels of a disastrous season in Chicago and battling a well-regarded incumbent for the job. The normally ebullient Swisher was crestfallen, retreating to a half-hearted platitude. “I guess we’re just going to see how it plays out,” he said
to the press after that day’s game.
Things played out pretty well for Swisher that year. A little over seven months later, he stood in right field as Robinson Canó handled a routine groundball for the final out of the Yankees’ 27th title. The forgotten man who’d beat him out in March was forced to watch from the sidelines.
Xavier Clifford Nady
Born: November 14, 1978 (Carmel, CA)
Yankees Tenure: 2008-09
Xavier Nady was born in 1978 as the sixth generation of Xavier Nadys, a tradition dating back to 16th century France. He grew up in Monterey County, taking home Northern California High School Player of the Year honors at Salinas High before being drafted in the fourth round by the Cardinals. Nady passed up pro ball for the college ranks, heading to UC Berkeley. He left in 1997 as the school’s all-time leader in home runs in RBIs, riding his success to a second-round draft selection by the Padres.
The 21-year-old had the uncommon distinction of jumping straight from college ball to the major leagues. Even more uncommon, he received a single at-bat in a September 2000 game, recording a base hit, before spending the next two years honing his skills in the minors. Nady’s hit tool played immediately, as he became a top-40 prospect per Baseball America. When he got the call to the Show once again in ‘03, the Padres had every reason to believe this promotion would be for good.
As with so many top prospects, though, Nady struggled to fulfill expectations. In his next three seasons in San Diego, while splitting time between the outfield and first base, he hit below league average, slashing an underwhelming .262/.319/.413. A surprising 82-80 division champion (MLB’s all-time worst for a full season until the .500 Astros of 2026), the Padres gave him just five trips to the plate during the Division Series sweep at the hands of the Cardinals.
Following the 2005 campaign, San Diego cut bait, flipping Nady to the Mets for Mike Cameron. Thus began an odyssey that would lead Nady to play for eight teams over his next eight seasons. He hit a little better over the next two years with New York and Pittsburgh, performing well enough to maintain a starting job but, with a limited defensive profile, struggling to provide much value. Entering the ‘08 season, at the age of 29, it seemed Nady’s die was cast.
That’s what made his performance that year so shocking. Through July 25th, he was hitting .330 with 13 homers and 57 RBIs, joining Nate McLouth and Jason Bay to form one of the best outfields in baseball.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, their franchise had little else going for it in an eventual 95-loss campaign (their 16th of a staggering 20 consecutive losing seasons), making Nady expendable. The Yankees, struggling to keep pace in a strong AL East with the defending champion Red Sox and the upstart newly-christened Rays, acquired him in advance of the Trade Deadline alongside lefty reliever Dámaso Marte in exchange for a package of prospects led by outfielder José Tábata.
Nady provided an immediate jolt, winning AL Player of the Week honors in his first full week in pinstripes as he went 10-for-19 with three homers and 10 RBI. While he failed to hit for average like he had in Pittsburgh, he ended up with 12 long balls in 59 games, helping to fortify an aging lineup dealing with injuries to Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui.
It wouldn’t be enough to keep the Yankees from missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993, though, leading to an offseason full of upheaval. Alongside more prominent moves to acquire CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira via free agency, that included a trade for Swisher from the White Sox.
After nabbing the starting right field job in the spring, Nady entered the ‘09 season with enthusiasm and focus, resolved to improve his plate discipline, the one knock against what was an exceptional season at the plate the year prior. Alas, it was not to be. Just a week into the season, he suffered a UCL injury. Nady put up a good fight, attempting a minor-league rehab stint in July, but ultimately required Tommy John surgery, ending his season and, with it, his tenure in the Bronx. It would be Marte, the far less heralded piece of the Pirates swap the year prior, who became an unlikely October hero, making seven scoreless appearances between the ALCS and World Series as a critical lefty specialist in the Yankees’ title run.
The itinerant Nady signed with the Cubs the next year but couldn’t recreate the magic of 2008. As he continued to battle injuries, he bounced to Arizona, then Washington, and then San Francisco, never again finding sustained success as he continued to struggle with debilitating injuries. In 2014, at the age of 35, he returned to the Padres for a brief swansong before hanging up his cleats for good.
Nady retired to San Diego, where he spent some time as a minor-league hitting coach in the Padres organization. As of 2020, he was working as a scout and recruiter for Boras Corp. While Nady’s career never reached the heights for which he may have hoped, he battled through adversity to play big-league ball for parts of 12 seasons. “I always wondered what could have been without the injuries, but I guess that comes with the nature of the game,” he said in 2020. “I felt honored to put on a big league uniform for all or parts of 12 seasons. There were ups and downs, injuries I couldn’t control that challenged me mentally and physically, but they gave me a deeper understanding of how good things can be and was I thankful for that.”
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
