Giants Pitcher Jeff Samardzija Says He was Tired of Endlessly Rebuilding With the Cubs

Righthander Jeff Samardzija signed a free agent five year deal worth $90 million with the San Francisco Giants this past winter. Samardzija was a high value prospect with the Chicago Cubs, playing for them from 2008 until halfway through the 2014 seasons. The Cubs made the playoffs in his rookie season, but lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a Division Series. The Cubs went into a decline after that, and didn’t make the playoffs again during Samardzija’s tenure with the team. During that bleak time, the club hired general manager Theo Epstein, a proven winner, away from the Boston Red Sox, to see if he could build a winner in Chicago.

Epstein elected to build from the ground up, drafting and trading for young prospects to build for the future, rather than trying to assemble some retreads and hope they had enough left in the tank to squeeze out a post season appearance. That process takes time to succeed. Epstein believed Samardzija was part of that future, so during the 2104 season, he offered the pitcher a five year $80 million contract extension.

In an interview, Samardzija says he got tired of the promises of rebuilding, and wasn’t interested. So the Cubs traded him to the Oakland Athletics, acquiring Addison Russell, now the Cubs’ starting shortstop, in the deal. Samardzija played for Oakland the rest of the 2014 season, and was traded to the Chicago White Sox for the 2015 season. A free agent after the 2015 season, Samardzija jumped at the chance to sign with the Giants, World Series winners in 2010, 2012, and 2014.

We get where Samardzija is coming from; the Cubs have been essentially rebuild for nearly three quarters of a century with the occasional playoff appearance that ultimately falls short. And who wouldn’t want to sign with a team like the Giants, who have won the World Series every even numbered year in the 2010’s and will this year if that pattern holds?

That being said, we think the Giants are paying a lot of money for a guy who has had an average at best career to this point. Originally a reliever with the Cubs, he was 8-4 with a 2.97 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 75 appearances (88 innings). A decent strikeout pitcher (he had over 200 each season in 2013 and ’14 as a starter), he also give up a lot of hits. Last season he was 11-13 with a 4.96 ERA for the White Sox, an admittedly bad team in 2015. But Samardzija gave up 228 hits, 29 homers, and 118 earned runs, all league highs. We have yet to see Samardzija show evidence that he’s anything besides a #5 starter. For his career, Samardzija is 47-61 with a 4.09 ERA. It turned out to be a good move by the Cubs to let him go and use the money saved for signing other players. The Cubs, of course, exceeded expectations and made it to the NLCA before losing to the New York Mets in 2015, and big things are expected this year. It’s entirely possible that with a change of scenery to an excellent team will allow Samardzija to reach his full potential (though he’s just 1-3 with a 7.20 ERA in spring training games this season). It’s also a distinct possibility that the Cubs and Giants will meet in the post season.

Here’s a Samardzija highlight from 2015: