Jeff Samardzija has always thrived with velocity. Throughout his career, he’s relied on being able to throw 95-96 mph with two different types of movement. We saw him do this with the Giants the first two years of his deal and while his ERA wasn’t pretty, the peripherals were solid. He had velocity and stuff, but more importantly, he had velocity.
Then he suffered a pectoral strain and his shoulder burst into flames in 2018 and the velocity disappeared. He can’t throw his four seamer 96 anymore. He can barely throw 94. He’s averaging 91.