Fantasy Baseball: How Does The White Sox Acquision Of Jeff Samardzija Affect His Value?

The Chicago White Sox revamped their 2015 pitching staff, trading three minor leaguers to the Oakland Athletics for pitcher Jeff Samardzija on Monday night. They also signed former Yankees closer David Robertson to a four-year deal.

Samardzija’s 2014 season was highlighted by his magnificent start to the year with the Chicago Cubs, where he had a dominant 1.46 ERA through his first ten starts. However, it was not until his eleventh start that he picked up his first win of the season.

His trade to the Athletics in July was part of general manager Billy Beane’s “going all in” tactic that saw the A’s make a flurry of moves to stack their team for the playoffs. That obviously did not work out as they lost in the Wild Card round to the Kansas City Royals.

Samardzija’s numbers were eerily similar across the board in comparison between the National and American League. Only becoming a starter in 2012, Samardzija had struggled in that inaugural season and in 2013 posting ERA’s of 3.81 and 4.34 respectively.

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Samardzija now comes to the White Sox, who already have one of the best pitchers in the majors in Chris Sale. They are an extremely young team. One that might be only a couple of years away from playoff contention. They are certainly better than the Cubs of 2014, but wins may be a little more difficult to come by for Samardzija than they were in Oakland. Sale was third in the majors in ERA (2.17), but tied for fiftieth in wins (12).

The closer situation in Chicago was a group effort in 2014. Jake Petricka led the team in saves with 14, however Ronald Belisario was right behind him with 8. Insert Robertson, who was third in the American League with 39 saves in 2014. I think 39 would be ambitious for any White Sox fan to expect again. A more realistic number would probably be between 20-25 saves in 2015. That is a pretty average number, but since there is a limited number of closers, Robertson will still be a commodity to own in all leagues.

The young White Sox players have another year under their belt and there is no doubt these two moves are filling holes. The White Sox are creeping towards that .500-mark. Do not forget that they also signed Adam LaRoche and Zach Duke earlier in the offseason. Samardzija and Robertson may experience a slight drop-off, but will still be fantasy relevant in 2015.

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