White Sox right-hander Jeff Samardzija has new representation just six weeks or so before he’ll hit the open market for the first time time in his career, reports Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal (via Twitter). Samardzija is now represented by agent Adam Katz of the Wasserman Media Group.
The 30-year-old Samardzija entered the year poised to be one of the top free agent arms on the open market after posting a stellar 2.99 ERA with 8.3 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a 50.2 percent ground-ball rate across 219 2/3 innings between the Cubs and A’s in 2014. Aside from his strikeout rate, each of those marks represented a career best.
However, Samardzija hasn’t performed well following his trade to the White Sox, working to a 5.04 ERA in 207 innings this season. He could still set a career-high in innings pitched and looked better in his latest outing, throwing a dominant one-hit shutout that helped stop the bleeding in what has been perhaps the worst five-week stretch of Samardzija’s career. Prior to that gem, Samardzija had surrendered a staggering 51 runs in his previous 49 2/3 innings.
Despite his struggles, the expectation here is that Samardzija will still do reasonably well as a free agent. The Sox seem almost certain to make a qualifying offer, and though he’s struggled in 2015, Samardzija will probably reject the offer. No player has accepted the offer to this point, and the downside for Samardzija would be taking a one-year deal worth $10MM+ (probably in a more pitcher-friendly setting than U.S. Cellular Field), whereas the upside is a perhaps a four-year deal with an annual value in excess of $15MM. Samardzija’s velocity has held throughout his struggles, and his raw stuff still impresses scouts. He also has the benefit of a relatively low-mileage arm due to his time playing football and his work as a reliever early in his career.
Samardzija will add to a free agent class for WMG that also includes Hisashi Iwakuma, Bartolo Colon, Brandon Morrow and Bud Norris, among others. The change has been reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains representation information on more than 2,000 Major League and Minor League players. If you see any errors or omissions, please let us know via email: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.
I have a feeling he’ll have a hard time topping the reported 85 million the Cubs offered. He always came off as cocky not confident to me. Was really glad the Cubs traded him and go the return they did.
Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to get $85MM guaranteed, though I do think he’ll come closer than a lot of people would expect. But, that 5/85 deal probably included 2015, meaning he was basically offered 4/75 for his first four years of free agency. I don’t think it was necessarily unwise to turn it down. Even if he ends up signing Ervin Santana’s contract (and I think he can top that, especially if he tosses another couple of strong outings), he’d end up earning $65MM over the same five-year term that the $85MM deal would’ve covered.
I’m not trivializing $20MM by any means, but the potential upside for Samardzija was to come out and sign a five- or six-year deal worth $120MM+. And, that number would’ve been on top of the $9.8MM he earned in 2015 — a sum that would’ve been folded in the $85MM guarantee had he accepted the Cubs’ offer.
All told, he might’ve cost himself $10-20MM and subjected himself to plenty of scrutiny in the process, but the reward would’ve been in excess of $50MM.
He unsurprisingly takes a ton of flak for betting on himself and coming up short, but I don’t think it was a foolish move, necessarily. For Cubs fans, though, getting Russell out of the ordeal is a pretty amazing turnout.
Good point, easy to see why a person with plenty of financial security would risk 10-20m for 50 or more. No different than what Scherzer did on a bit smaller scale. Russell is a blast to watch, even more so now that he’s at SS.
Surprised Samardzija didn’t switch to Boras if he was going to go with a different agent for his shot at free agency this winter. he’s going to need someone experienced with telling whoppers and tall tales to make those numbers The Shark put up this year worthy of a decent FA deal.
Boras probably takes a big commission fee and Samardzija’s already seen enough of his future earnings evaporate this year
He doesn’t have the name recognition necessarily (few agents do), but Katz is a pretty high-profile agent himself. He reps Hanley, Colon, Kenley Jansen and Yasiel Puig, among others. And he repped Sosa, Mo Vaughn, Carlos Lee, Bret Boone and some other big names that have since retired.
He’s going to need some talking is my read heading into the offseason, especially if the ChiSox give him a qualifying offer.
I very rarely think a player switching to Boras is a smart idea in the long haul, but a guy that has talent and had a fairly bad season like Samardzia did was one guy this season who (to me) made sense for the Boras “bully pulpit” style of smoke and mirrors representation.
That 5/85m several of you were talking about above might have even been obtainable, albeit he might have had to remain on the market for quite some time after the new year to get it. Think Boras could have used his talents best with under achieving players, exactly like this.
I don’t see why he can’t get 5/85 if Porcello got 4/82 not even on the open market. He may be older but he has way less work on his arm than Porcello.
With a title like “…Switches TO Wasserman” – it sure would be nice to include who he switched FROM in the content.
I think Samardzija should take the qualifying offer. No one wants to give up their first round draft pick for a guy with an ERA in the 5’s and any contract he could get would probably be nowhere close to the AAV of the QO.
Samardzija:
1. No. 2 stuff
2. No. 4-5 results
3. No. 1 ego
No thanks.