Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle and Jon Morosi of Fox are reporting that the Giants and Royals each had a “high-level scout” evaluating Jeff Samardzija’s start Tuesday in Miami.
The Giants have been mentioned as a suitor for Samardzija, and a lot of speculation -- based mostly on the teams’ needs, not actual intelligence -- has the Orioles and Blue Jays interested, but the Royals are new. I guess ripping off two or three great weeks of baseball and jumping into first place makes you a buyer. Imagine.
As we noted yesterday, the Cubs recently reached out to Samardzija with a new offer on a possible contract extension, but it’s doubtful anything will happen there. He likely wants Matt Cain money -- something north of $120 million -- and the Cubs are highly unlikely to pay that.