Mothers don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys. Let them grow up to be below average starting pitchers with mediocre stuff instead. The San Francisco Giants have signed free agent right-hander Jeff Samardzija to a five-year, $90 million contract on Saturday.
Samardzija, 30. went 11-13 with a 4.96 ERA last season which ranked third-highest among all qualified American League pitchers. He has seen his strikeout rate decline from 8.7 to 8.0 to 6.9 over the last three seasons and his home run rate has climbed from 0.6 to to 1.0 to a career high 1.2 as a starting pitcher in 2015. His 0.2 WAR is also the lowest of his career and a far cry from the 3.7 he posted in 2014, the only good season of his career.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh, but to see a pitcher like this coming off such an awful year and getting a five year deal that will pay him $18 million dollars a year – a hefty raise from the $9 million he earned last season – is just mind-boggling to me.
Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz will combine to earn less than $6 million in 2016. Damn, if that doesn’t bring a smile to Met fan’s face, nothing will. Now if we can only a win a championship or two during the 3-4 year window when they’ll all be under cost-controlled contracts.
