New York Yankees’ Nick Swisher turns down qualifying offer – MLB Update
For many years, Nick Swisher embraced New York Yankees’ life style like few others, developing a great relationship with the club and his fans. However, in October things got very ugly for the Yankees’ right fielder.
Those fans who folded him into their arms, started to criticise him for his inconsistency. The bat that helped him get 570 regular season hits for the Yankees got cold and Swisher started to feel the heat.
Time for emancipation arrived on Friday when he rejected Yankees’ qualifying offer of $13.3 million for one year. It seems the 31-year-old Swisher is taking a step back to analyse the situation he is in right now. He also wants the Yankees to analyse the
entire situation.
Since making his debut for New York, Swisher has given some impressive performances. Until last season, he was the most aggressive and consistent hitter in the Yankees’ batting line-up. So, what went wrong for him?
Baseball is a very tough business. Even the best players can sometimes find it difficult to get back into form and that is what Swisher experienced in the last season. Swisher, who rejected the offer on Friday, will now wait to see what the open market can
offer him.
Most players do not accept the qualifying offers as they know there is more cash or at least more years available. Therefore, it is worth playing the waiting game. Swisher hit .268 with 105 home-runs and 349 RBI’s in 598 regular season games with the Yankees.
He hit .272 with 24 home-runs and 93 RBI’s last season. It will be interesting to see if he can bring more consistency in his game play to become a .300 hitter.
“It’s going to take a lot of work to replace what he provided,” Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman told reporters at the General Managers Meetings in Indian Wells, Calif. “Not just production-wise, but that switch-hitting ability, that flexibility that
his athleticism provided.”
Relief pitcher Rafael Soriano and starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda have also officially declined the qualifying offers. All nine players offered qualifying contracts this year, elected to turn down the offers.
It will be interesting to see which team Swisher will be playing for in the next season.
Tags: