Swisher Admits 'It Hurt' Not To Receive Long-Term Offer From Yankees
Cleveland Indians outfielder Nick Swisher faced the New York Yankees on Monday for the first time since he left as a free agent this past offseason.
New York was never really expected to heavily pursue re-signing Swisher, but he says "it hurt" to never receive a contract offer, besides the $13.3 million qualifying offer.
"That team was amazing. The city was amazing. You guys were amazing to me. My teammates were so great to me," Swisher said of New York.
"And when you are in a place for four years, that's a long time in baseball. You develop some relationships. Sometimes when you leave, that's not exactly what you want to do sometimes. But the way that Cleveland's come in and approached the situation and treated me like a king over here, I just could not be more honored to be putting the uniform on for them every single day.”
Despite the sour taste, Swisher was grateful to be a Yankee for four seasons.
"But either way, man, those guys over there, the city of New York, the New York Yankees organization, I could not have been more honored to be a part of that," he said. "The last four years have been amazing. Just trying to take everything that I've learned from over there, and bring it in here."