Prominent free agent Jeff Samardzija could be making strides towards returning to his original home, the Chicago Cubs.
Reports have begun to surface that talks have begun between the Chicago Cubs and free agent pitcher Jeff Samardzija. The 30-year-old right-hander met with Cubs president Theo Epstein on Wednesday evening according to Phil Rogers of MLB.com, to discuss a return to the team that originally drafted him and whom he pitched from 2008-2014, when he made the National League All-Star team just before being dealt to the Oakland Athletics.
The interest in Samardzija from the Cubs is far from an unlikely result, as he is a known quantity and there is a certain level of mutual interest as well, as he is a native of the Chicago area. He spent the 2015 season pitching in the area as well, after being dealt to the Chicago White Sox in December of last year.
The durable righty reached the 200 inning mark for the third consecutive year, but was often inconsistent as well. He posted a full season career-high 4.96 ERA over 32 starts, working to an 11-13 record. He also allowed the most hits (229), home runs (29) and earned runs (129) in the American League last season.
Yet despite these low marks, he still showed the same powerful arsenal that made him an All-Star the previous year in the National League, and has garnered wide-spread interest on the free agent market thus far. According to Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors, it has been estimated he could land a deal in the range of five years and $80 million. For a mid-prime workhorse, who has shown the upside that Samardzija has, that is a reasonable return, if not a slight value price brought on by his downturn last season.
With pitching being the primary focus for Epstein’s Cubs this winter, it is uncertain how willing they will be to do multiple big money deals at once however. With their sites firmly set on competing for the services of David Price, a still early ended commitment to Jon Lester in place and new deal for Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta on the horizon as well, tying in too much into essentially a fourth starter could cause for hesitation from the Cubs brass.
But whatever the case may be, the interest between the two parties is very real, as the meeting between player and organization was captured at a Chicago-area Starbucks yesterday.