Nick Swisher stepping away from baseball to be with growing family

NEW YORK -- Former major league outfielder Nick Swisher says he is stepping away from the game to spend time with his wife and two daughters.

In a series of posts to his Twitter account on Saturday, Swisher said he plans to keep training every day and "evaluate my options for next season at the appropriate time."

The 35-year-old Swisher hasn't appeared in a major league game this season. He was released by Atlanta late in spring training and signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees in April.

Swisher and his wife, JoAnna, recently welcomed their second daughter, Sailor Stevie.

"I don't think we would have signed him if we didn't want to take a look at him," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before New York played at San Diego. "We just felt some guys were ahead of him at the time. He was never called and I respect what he did. He had another baby and he'll enjoy that."

While the Yankees could have brought up Swisher, they left him in the minors and brought up Chris Parmelee, who then got hurt, and they still didn't bring up Swisher.

Swisher is earning $15 million this year under the contract he signed with Cleveland before the 2013 season.

Asked what he'll remember about Swisher's career, Girardi said: "I'm not so sure that this will be it for him. He was a guy that brought a lot of energy and had some big years for us. Patient hitter that had power."

Swisher, the son of former major league catcher Steve Swisher, made his major league debut with Oakland in 2004. He has 245 homers and 803 RBIs in 1,527 games.