Williams: Samardzija, Robertson are ‘exactly what we wanted’

White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams said the team got “exactly what we wanted” in acquiring Jeff Samardzija and David Robertson late Monday night.

Speaking to radio hosts David Kaplan and David Haugh on WGWG-FM, Williams described how the Robertson signing went down.

“At the end of the day we’re sitting around in our war room here and we put a figure on Robertson and said ‘Let’s not go beyond that figure,’” Williams said. “And Jerry (Reinsdorf), at the end of the day, said ‘Let’s do. This is a great addition, you guys have positioned yourself and the team in great fashion.’ And at the end of the night that’s how it developed and we went for it.”

Robertson agreed to a four-year, $46 million contract.

As for Samardzija, who was acquired in a trade, Williams said he wanted to bring the right-hander back home.

“The guy grew up a White Sox fan,” Williams said. “I not only love the pitcher, I love the mentality of the pitcher. He just gets after it. He competes. Those type of guys are infectious. It was kind of similar to how I felt about Jake Peavy and the way he approaches his job on the mound. You get a bunch of guys that see that and it starts to have a carryover effect.”

Samardzija has one year remaining on his contract, and Williams said that could put the sides in an awkward position when the time comes to re-up his contract.

“When you get a local guy he’s gonna say he wants to stay,” Williams said. “We’re gonna say we want him to stay, and hopefully we’ll put enough on the table to make that happen.”

Williams made it clear there may not be another splashy move by the White Sox this offseason. When asked what he needs next, Williams responded: “More cash.”

“We’ve got to figure out a way to get some more cash so that we can do some of the things we’d like to do,” Williams said. “Ideally, we’ll go out there and say ‘Who’s the next best free agent at the position that we need?’ So right now we have to get a little creative. We don’t have to pare any payroll, and we do have some space to increase our spending a little bit, but not a whole lot. I would love to be able to dream about some of the possibilities and things that are being thrown around here. We’ll sit back, be a little creative. I’ve got some ideas. I don’t want to get into specifics.”