Samardzija resented Cubs' rebuild: 'It was becoming a joke'
Jeff Samardzija, who was drafted by the Cubs a decade ago and spent the first seven years of his MLB career on the North Side of Chicago, gets why Theo Epstein overhauled the organization after taking over the club's baseball operations department in 2011.
Doesn't mean he liked it, though.
"It was the easy thing to do," Samardzija told Bob Nightengale of USA Today. "You can always sell the future, and people always buy it. It’s a great way to rebuild, and I understand that.
"But as a veteran guy, it was becoming a joke."
Samardzija's enduring frustration, even after landing a five-year, $80-million contract from the San Francisco Giants earlier this winter, isn't all that surprising. After all, the 31-year-old right-hander - who grew up an hour's drive from Wrigley Field - endured the worst parts of the Cubs' rebuild and didn't get to reap the benefits of 2015.
In Epstein's first two seasons as president of baseball operations, the Cubs won a total of 127 games, with the front office focusing more on improving the club's prospect pool than winning games at the MLB level. For Samardzija, watching his team's top executives neglect the present for the sake of the future got tiring after a while.
“I just got so sick of hearing about it,’’ Samardzija said. “They had to do what they had to do, but as a professional, you always want to be competing, not hearing some rhetoric every year."
Though the Cubs wanted Samardzija to be part of their supposedly glorious future, the Notre Dame product wasn't interested when the club offered him a five-year, $80-million extension in the summer of 2014. So, that July, the Cubs shipped him and Jason Hammel to Oakland for Addison Russell, the former top prospect now entrenched at shortstop at Wrigley Field.
The next year, the Cubs finished 97-65 and made it all the way to the National League Championship Series. Samardzija, who was traded to the Chicago White Sox last winter, endured his worst season since becoming a full-time starter in 2012.
“It was a risky plan, right, counting on the draft and Cuban guys and things like that,’’ Samardzija said. “They spent money to get guys. They hit on the guy (Kris) Bryant who’s a difference maker. (Anthony) Rizzo came on. Now, they’re rolling."
Still, while he isn't thrilled about how his tenure in Chicago went down, Samardzija said he still has feelings for the Cubs.
"They will always be in my heart. I'll take pride in what they do because I'm a Chicago guy," he said. "You always want to see your boys do well, until we play against them."