Cubs, Jeff Samardzija Settle 2014 Contract: $5.345 Million

Details via Carrie Muskat:

#Cubs and Samardzija settle at $5.345 million and avoid arbitration

— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) February 8, 2014

It would appear, by that settlement figure, that the reports of the Cubs and Jeff Samardzija being "$100,000 apart" were, in fact, true. It looks like the Cubs had come up to $5.3 million and Shark down to $5.4 million, and they were haggling over the midpoint. The Cubs, thus, can claim a "win" here, if that's what you want to call it, because they saved $5,000 over the midpoint of those two (which would have been $5.35 million).

Five thousand dollars. That's the cost of about 235 bleacher tickets at the bronze level, or a little over 700 beers, which the Cubs could probably sell in about 15 minutes on a warm summer day at Wrigley Field.

I'm not one to call the Cubs or the Ricketts "cheap" -- I know what they've been spending on player development. Haggling over $5,000 doesn't help that image, though.

Let's hope Shark has a big year and deserves the long-term contract extension he's been seeking.

All the arb-eligible Cubs players are thus signed for 2014, and the Cubs have had just one arb hearing since 1993 (Ryan Theriot in 2010).