The move: The San Francisco Giants added right-handed pitcher Jeff Samardzija with a five-year, $90 million contract. Yes, that's the market rate these days for a pitcher coming off a season in which he posted a 4.96 ERA and led the American League in hits allowed, home runs allowed and runs allowed. If that sounds a little insane, maybe it is, but many teams are clearly swimming in cash and looking for places to spend to it.

The upside is that Samardzija has a clean bill of health, a good arm, and ranks 10th in the majors in innings pitched since he became a starter in 2012. Since he also played football at Notre Dame and spent the first part of his career as a reliever, he also has relatively little wear and tear on his arm compared to most 30-year-old pitchers (he turns 31 in January). Still, he projects as more of a No. 3 starter than a top-of-the-rotation guy; at $18 million per season, the Giants are paying for a pitcher to deliver 2 to 3 WAR per season. Samardzija also has been valued much differently by Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs, where he's averaged 1.7 WAR in his four seasons as a starter and 3.1 WAR per season, respectively. Given the happy medium of those figures, Samardzija doesn't look like a huge overpay if he stays healthy.

The reason: The Giants were reportedly in on Zack Greinke, before losing him to the Diamondbacks. A year ago, they were in on Jon Lester, reportedly outbidding the Cubs. So they've been looking to find a reliable starter behind Madison Bumgarner ever since the decline of Tim Lincecum and the injury problems of Matt Cain. The rotation ranked seventh in the National League in ERA in 2015, but that's with the help of pitcher-friendly AT&T Park. FanGraphs rated the overall value of the rotation at just 7.2 WAR, 25th in the majors. Other than Bumgarner, the Giants haven't had a 200-inning pitcher since Cain in 2012, so adding another workhorse filled a big need.

The impact: The Giants' rotation temporarily looks like this:

1. Madison Bumgarner

2. Jeff Samardzija

3. Jake Peavy

4. Chris Heston

5. Matt Cain

There is speculation the Giants could take some of the money earmarked for Greinke and spend it on Mike Leake, in addition to Samardzija. Leake's projected contract of four years and $56 million would mean a combined $146 million for starting pitchers -- perhaps leaving some money in reserve to go after a left fielder such as Alex Gordon or Justin Upton. Given Cain's health issues, Peavy's age and Heston's second-half slide (4.91 ERA), another starter like Leake makes sense.

With David Price, Greinke, John Lackey and Samardzija signing in rapid fashion, the top starting pitchers now available are Johnny Cueto, Leake, Hisashi Iwakuma, Scott Kazmir, Wei-Yin Chen and Yovani Gallardo, with Japanese star Kenta Maeda to be posted and an intriguing option as well. The obvious team looking for a starter: The Los Angeles Dodgers. They have Clayton Kershaw, Brett Anderson and Alex Wood in the rotation, plus Hyun-Jin Ryu, returning from injury (four left-handers, for what that's worth). And the Diamondbacks may still be on the prowl for another veteran starter too.

This much is clear: Something tells me the offseason action is just heating up in the NL West.