Giants' Jeff Samardzija: Will work on honing splitter

Samardzija said that his bounce-back campaign last year can be attributed to rediscovering his splitter. He will work on honing the pitch this spring, CSN Bay Area reports.

Analysis:

While his entire 2016 season should be considered a bounce-back (3.81 ERA) after posting an ERA north of five in 2015, Samardzija was referencing the tail end of his season when he talks about finding his split-finger fastball. Earlier in the year, the hard-throwing righty was relying on his cutter as his go-to secondary pitch, with mixed results. Incorporating a curveball had some success at certain points of the year, but it was the splitter that provided the best results for Samardzija. He threw 113 splitters in September after throwing just 35 combined splitters over the first five months of the season. The results were notable for the Shark, posting a 2.95 ERA with a 4.2 K/BB ratio in the final month of the season. Samardzija said that he will be working on honing his splitter throughout the Cactus League, so -- as with all veteran pitchers who have their rotation spot locked down -- take his spring training stats with a grain of salt.