Matt Garza made headlines last week for advising Cubs right-hander Jeff Samardzija to follow in his footsteps and “pitch your way out of there” to leave Chicago.
Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer was asked about those comments today and mostly declined to take the bait, telling Patrick Mooney of CSNChicago.com:
Garza got his payday. He’s on a team that’s winning. I guess he feels like he’s in a position right now to make comments. It’s on us now to flip that script, to show that we’re a place that people want to be, to show that we’re a winning organization.
It doesn’t really bother me. Being traded is a hard thing, emotionally, for people. Even in a situation like that where we had a good relationship with him, there’s probably a feeling of rejection, for lack of a better word. People say emotional things when asked about it, because there’s probably some resentment they’re harboring.
It’s worth noting that the Brewers are Garza’s fifth team in eight seasons and his $50 million contract was quite a bit less than many people pegged him for heading into free agency, but as Hoyer points out it’s tough to really sling any mud back at someone when the Cubs are losing so much.
Plus, the Cubs did pretty damn well in trading Garza to the Rangers, getting a nice four-prospect return for a couple months of his services that ended up not even being all that helpful to Texas. And so far Garza has a 5.00 ERA for the Brewers.
