"I think, as I said, I understand that this is a business, and at some point that's what it becomes. It doesn't matter how long you've been in one place. Every organization comes to a point where they have to do the best for that organization, and whether that means trading a really good player or not signing a player that's been there a long time or whatever it might be. I think that's where it had gotten to. We really didn't have any conversations about it. I don't think it's my place as a player to necessarily go to an organization and ask for a job. So I didn't think it was my place to try and force an issue and put the organization in a situation where they felt like they needed to -- out of guilt or anything else -- to [re-sign me]. I wanted it to be that both parties wanted it to happen. And I think I made it clear at the end of the season when I talked to [Orioles] people and the media and anybody else that the Orioles would be my No. 1 choice. I don't think that I ever wavered on that. But I also think on the last day of the season, that when the game was over, that [would be] it, that was a possibility. And I was OK with that. I became OK with that as a player. And there are no hard feelings. The organization and the fans and everyone in Baltimore have been incredible to me my whole career. I wouldn't have changed a thing, except I wish I could have been on the field a little bit more the last couple years. But other than that, I wouldn't change anything."