Major League Baseball

Chicago's Samardzija recalls good time with A's, thoughts on Wild Card Game defeat

Published May. 16, 2015 1:45 p.m. ET

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Jeff Samardzija returned to O.co Coliseum this weekend as a member of the Chicago White Sox, and naturally he had some thoughts about the Oakland A's, with whom he spent the final few months of the 2014 season after being picked up in a blockbuster trade with the Chicago Cubs in early July.

Samardzija was pegged to start Game 1 of the Division Series for Oakland against the Los Angeles Angels should the A's have advanced past the Kansas City Royals in the Wild Card Game, but that didn't come to fruition. 

As the tall right-hander told John Hickey of Inside the A's on Friday, he had been hoping to still be in Oakland after the A's crushing Wild Card Game loss: “I thought Billy (general manager Billy Beane) might hold the team together. And we’d have been real good if that’d happened. But I knew his history of remaking the roster. I thought I might be back in Oakland, and that would have been great, because I liked playing here and loved the guys, but going to Chicago has been great for me.’’

Beane could have kept 'Shark' to begin 2015 and perhaps entertain trade proposals in the summer, but then the A's would be without shortstop Marcus Semien (who is showing promising signs, if a bit rough around the edges defensively), catcher Josh Phegley and young players Chris Bassitt and Rangel Ravelo. 

Of course, the A's Samardzija is visiting this weekend are a drastically different bunch than the ones with which he finished 2014, as Beane overhauled about half the roster in an off-season purge.  

Since his tenure with the A's was cut so short, all Samardzija has to go on is a sense of disappointment, considering he had strong feelings about the club's chances:

“If we win that game, there’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to the Series,’’ Samardzija said. “The momentum going to the winner of that game was something else.’’

So far with the White Sox, Samardzija is off to a tough start (2-2, 4.80 ERA in seven starts), but he'll be a free agent after this season and will likely be sought by several teams across the league regardless.

(h/t Inside the A's)

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