San Francisco Giants RUMORS: Jeff Samardzija Agrees to 5-Year Contract

As we wrote earlier this week, the San Francisco Giants were among the many MLB teams interested in signing starter Jeff Samardzija. The right-hander reportedly had a number of lucrative offers on the table, and it appears one of them was from the Giants.

Samardzija agreed to the five-year contract with San Francisco, pending a physical, according to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area. Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports added the deal is worth $90 million and Jon Heyman of CBS Sports notes Samardzija has a "limited" no-trade clause.

Heyman, in his latest edition of Inside Baseball, said scouts were still high on the right-hander despite his 4.96 ERA last season because of his "pristine health, big arm, few innings (he was a reliever first) and competitiveness."

The Giants were also among the frontrunners for Zack Greinke before the Arizona Diamondbacks swooped in with a mammoth $206.5 million offer. Nonetheless, Samardzija is a good fit for San Francisco, as many have speculated for a while now that's where he might wind up.

"The Giants are attracted to that durability, as Bumgarner is their only pitcher to throw a 200-inning season since 2012," adds Pavlovic. "Samardjiza has topped 213 for three consecutive seasons, and because he wasn't a full-time starter until 2012, he doesn't come with the usual wear-and-tear of a free agent pitcher."

Samardzija, 30, is 37-55 with a 4.14 ERA, 1.24 WHIP and 773 strikeouts in 131 career starts. Those numbers are inflated due to his horrid 2015 campain with the Chicago White Sox, for which many believed was not a favorable situation for him.

Pavlovic says the Giants are still in the market for a starting pitcher and an outfielder, which means they're offseason work is just beginning. With the Winter Meetings set to begin on Monday, a flurry of big moves are expected throughout the MLB even with Price, Greinke, Samardzija and John Lackey already off the board.

In fact, here's the latest on that front:

We'll see how San Fran addresses their other needs over the next week or so.

Tags

San francisco giants, Rumors, Jeff Samardzija, Agrees, Contract