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The Giants entered the offseason as co-favorites to sign Zack Greinke along with their archival Dodgers. The team had a clear need in their rotation, plenty of money to spend, and are in a win-now window. It appeared to be a perfect storm for them to dole out the kind of large contract that is relatively rare for them. Instead, as we all know, the star pitcher ended up with the Diamondbacks, yet another division rival. Now, San Francisco was forced to go with their Plan B, and it didn’t take long for that plan to go into action. On Saturday, it came out that the team reportedly agreed to a five-year deal with Jeff Samardzija worth a total of $90 million.
The former Notre Dame wide receiver is coming off an extremely disappointing season with the White Sox, and was thus one of the most interesting cases of the season. He was supposed to help lead Chicago to contention in 2015, but instead put up an ERA near 5.00 with peripherals that weren’t much better. Even with those poor numbers, however, there are plenty of statistical reasons to believe he can succeed with the Giants, even beyond their even-year tradition. As we’ve seen in previous seasons, he possesses legitimate upside that’s hard to find on the open market for under $100 million.
San Francisco will slot Samardzija right behind Madison Bumgarner in the rotation, with Matt Cain and Jake Peavy also joining them. Now, they will be turning their attention to the rest of the roster, and they have a couple more moves to make before they’re truly ready for another season of even-year magic. Among the holes remaining are a good hitting corner outfield, such as Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes or Alex Gordon. On top of that, they may be looking at another starting pitcher for the back-end of the rotation, like Mike Leake. Losing out on Greinke stung for a little bit, but they were able to get another good pitcher and now have the money to address other holes.
- The Dodgers also missed out on Greinke, and now it’s time for them to execute their own Plan B.
- If you, like me, we sleeping — err, partying, not sleeping, definitely partying — when Greinke signed, you can relive how it went down on Twitter.
- Other pitchers around the league are jumping for joy after the recent contracts, including Hisashi Iwakuma.
- The Braves are still shopping Shelby Miller, and they keep asking the Diamondbacks for A.J. Pollock, and it’s hilarious.
- Jason Heyward is the best free agent that’s still available. Who’s going to sign him?
- There’s been a lot of speculation about the Mets trading one of their young pitchers for an outfielder, but they may go the midrange free agent well instead.
- The Royals have the best reliever in the game. So, should they trade him?
- While you were busy trying to avoid Rockies games, Nolan Arenado was out there becoming a legitimate star.
- One year after being the darlings of the Winter Meetings, the Padres are looking to unload James Shields off their books.
- The Tigers signed Mike Pelfrey, and they may have gotten something close to the next Doug Fister.
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