Barry Zito hopes to return to MLB next season
After seven years with the San Francisco Giants in which he made $126 million, won two World Series rings, carried a 4.62 ERA and heard mounds of criticism about being overpaid, Barry Zito vanished in 2014.
Well, he vanished from baseball. Zito, 36, became a first-time father in July. He also spent time surfing, traveling and playing music, passions of his we knew about during his playing days.
Zito was always a bit different than your average MLB pitcher, so it’s no surprise he’s looking at 2014 as a sabbatical and has every intention to pitch again in 2015.
His agent, Scott Boras, is making the rounds at the MLB general managers’ meetings in Phoenix, telling reporters that Zito is ready to go for next season.
According to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, Zito moved to Houston in September and began training for the upcoming season. His intention, Crasnick writes, is to be a starting pitcher for an MLB team. Boras’ sales pitch these days for Zito is also a bit odd. He called the 2002 Cy Young winner a “hen” during his Giants days, and explained:
“You hear honest and valued owners say, ‘You know, Barry Zito’s contract was wonderful, because we won two world championships. We hired a hen to sit on our eggs of (Matt) Cain, (Tim) Lincecum and (Jonathan) Sanchez, and look where our system is because we had a guy who could take on the No. 1 role for a couple of years and put us in that position,’ ” Boras said.
Once you get past the mental image of Tim Lincecum being in an egg and Barry Zito sitting on top of that egg, what Boras is saying makes some sense.
He won’t be anybody’s ace. He hasn’t had a sub-4.00 ERA since 2006, his last year with the Oakland Athletics. But Zito’s potentially worth a flyer. He’ll be a buy-low free agent who could help a team that needs a veteran to help along its young starters.
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Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
