Jeff Samardzija will return to the National League, where he spent the first 6 ½ years of his major league career, after he agreed to a five-year contract worth a reported $90 million with the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants get Samardzija off a season in which he posted career-worsts in three categories: ERA (4.96), strikeout percentage (18 percent) and opponent OPS (.765).
From 2012 through 2015, his fourth season as a starter, no one in the major leagues had more losses.
Last season, with the Chicago White Sox, Samardzija tied for the most home runs allowed (29) in the American League. Among 40 qualified AL pitchers, he ranked seventh in home runs per nine innings (1.22). He gave up the most hits and earned runs in the AL.
Samardzija allowed an .896 opponent slugging percentage on pitches in the horizontal middle-third of the plate in 2015. That ranked sixth-worst among 40 qualified AL pitchers last season.
In 2014, when Samardzija had a 2.99 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP with the Cubs and the Athletics, he allowed a .709 slugging percentage on pitches in the horizontal middle. That ranked among the top 25 percent of the 91 qualified pitchers in both leagues that season.
His 2013 season was more like 2015 than 2014. He had a 4.34 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP, the worst WHIP in his four seasons as a starter. Opponents slugged .770 on pitches from Samardzija in the horizontal middle, very near the NL average (.766) and 24th out of 47 qualified NL starters that season.
Durability a positive for Samardzija
Samardzija started 32 or more games and pitched 213 or more innings in each of the last three seasons.
Over the last three seasons, the only Giants starter to pitch 200 or more innings in a season was Madison Bumgarner, who did it all three seasons.
