Did New York Dodge a Bullet Not Signing Shark?

We learned last week before the Winter Meetings even kicked off down in Nashville that the San Francisco Giants signed Jeff Samardzija to a five-year deal worth $90 million. The Giants wasted no time after missing out on Zack Grienke who signed that legendary contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks but did they do the Yankees a favor? Did New York dodge a bullet by not signing the man known as "Shark?"

First and foremost the Giants will have to surrender a draft pick for Samardzija's services. Samardzija was offered a qualifying offer by his former team the Chicago White Sox and declined forcing San Francisco to sacrifice the 19th pick overall. With the Greinke signing and the Samardzija signing the Yankees now own the 20th pick overall in the draft, is that worth a pitcher with a live arm that hasn't put it all together yet?

I know what you're thinking, "But the team just did that with Nathan Eovaldi this season why couldn't they do that with Samardzija next season?" They could, or they couldn't. I don't know. I fully acknowledge that Samardzija was a bit late to the party obviously and is still, for lack of a better word, raw, in terms of pitching with the sky as the limit. The Yankees essentially gave up a guy that wasn't good enough to be in the rotation and not really valuable in the bullpen plus Martin Prado, who don't get me wrong was very valuable, for Eovaldi where it would only cost money and a pick for Samardzija. The difference here though is that the Yankees had four potential starting rotation spots at that time and the team probably has about seven at this point, Samardzija would be an upgrade but he'd also be a bit redundant at this point.

Samardzija is 30 years old and had a pretty bad season when all final tallies were made. Shark finished with a 4.96 ERA and a 4.23 FIP to show that the ERA was an accurate representation of his struggles. Shark did throw 214 innings despite it all and pitched like an ace in 2014 posting a 2.99 ERA and 3.20 FIP, but that was in the National League. This is the American League and this specifically the American League East, that's a totally different ballgame.

Samardzija would have been nice, and if you believe in Larry Rothschild's ability as a miracle worker and pitching coach he would have been a great signing, but he wasn't a signing that made sense for the New York Yankees. I know he's 30 years old and got a late start to the show, meaning in development he may only be around 27 years old or so, but the Yankees may need the draft pick and the $90 million more than yet another project and yet another question mark in an already crowded rotation.