Kyle Schwarber wasn’t thrilled with getting non-tendered by the Chicago Cubs, who had drafted and developed the catcher-turned-outfielder, but the 27-year-old said that he did actually learn from the process of going through free agency for the first time.
“You’re definitely disappointed,” he said of the non-tender, “it’s not the way you wanted to leave, it’s not the way I wanted to leave my tenure in Chicago.
“But being able to talk to different teams and see how they evaluate, it was eye-opening. And it brings in a different perspective. All I’ve known is the Chicago Cubs for how many years now, and to be able to talk to other teams and to be able to talk to Washington and see how they evaluate, see how they see things, and see what kind of adjustments I can make, it was really exciting, and then once — you’re going kind of through this whole deal where you’re talking to different teams and things are slow-moving, and then all of a sudden we were able to work something out with Washington and I was ready to jump on it, because this was my No.