Email a copy of 'Jeff Samardzija Switches To Wasserman Media Group' to a friend
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By Steve Adams | at
Email a copy of 'Jeff Samardzija Switches To Wasserman Media Group' to a friend
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ilikebaseball 2
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.
Steve Adams
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.
ilikebaseball 2
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.
johnsilver
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.
petrie000
Boras probably takes a big commission fee and Samardzija’s already seen enough of his future earnings evaporate this year
Steve Adams
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.
johnsilver
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.
Niekro
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.
redsoxfan
With a title like “…Switches TO Wasserman” – it sure would be nice to include who he switched FROM in the content.
RedRooster
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.
gocubsgo2011
Samardzija:
1. No. 2 stuff
2. No. 4-5 results
3. No. 1 ego
No thanks.