Chicago Cubs: Looking back at Jeff Samardzija’s career

After a down year on the South Side, Jeff Samardzija could look to revitalize his career by returning to the team that drafted him, the Chicago Cubs.

For whatever reason, a great many Cubs fans have a bad taste in their mouth when it comes to the former Notre Dame football standout, Jeff Samardzija. For the life of me, I just don’t understand it.

We’re talking about a guy who is still just 30 years of age and has fewer than 1,000 big-league innings’ worth of stress on his right arm. He’s always had the potential to be a front-end starter with a repertoire to match, but things have just never panned out that way.

With the Chicago Cubs looking to bolster their starting rotation behind Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta and gritty southpaw Jon Lester, targeting someone like Samardzija, whom the Cubs initially drafted in the fifth round of the 2006 draft, a reunion makes a whole lot of sense.

Next: His early days as a Cubs hurler