Samardzija faces old team

By Susan Slusser

Jeff Samardzija wasn’t with the A’s very long, but he was enthusiastic during his tenure and remains so.

“I loved it,” said Samardzija, who will start Sunday’s game for the White Sox at the Coliseum. “You talk about a baseball organization, you put the A’s right up there, through and through.”

When acquired in July in a trade with the Cubs that included Oakland’s top prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, Samardzija was under contract through this year and hoped to stay with the A’s. He thought that getting moved to the White Sox in December for shortstop Marcus Semien, catcher Josh Phegley and right-hander Chris Bassitt was “maybe a little premature, but that’s OK.”

As for all the moves the A’s made during the offseason, nine deals in all, Samardzija said that he would have liked to see the team stay together but that he wasn’t stunned with the turnover.

“They’d had a good run for three or four years, and as I’ve watched as a fan of baseball, I’ve seen Oakland do it before, so not too surprising,” he said. “They have certain parameters, and they had to stay within those.”

Samardzija remains a big fan of manager Bob Melvin, and vice versa.

“I don’t think anybody could have fit into the club- house so easily as he did from the first day he’d been here,” Melvin said. “It was like he’d been here and we’d known him for a while. Not only that, he’s a great performer. Glad I got to spend some time with him. I know he enjoyed being here, and you wish him the best.

“Except for Sunday.”

Briefly: Ben Zobrist (arthroscopic knee surgery) will run the bases Sunday and is likely to do so again Monday before starting a rehab assignment. Melvin said Zobrist will play a game in the outfield, maybe two in the infield and maybe one at designated hitter, with an eye toward returning a week from Monday. ... Even if Zobrist were ready a bit earlier, coming back next weekend on Tampa Bay’s artificial turf wouldn’t be ideal, Melvin said. ... A.J. Griffin and Eric O’Flaherty, both experiencing shoulder soreness, are doing throwing programs. O’Flaherty started throwing again Friday, and on Saturday, he was at a distance of 90 feet.