A’s call up Barry Zito from Triple-A — is MLB farewell vs. Tim Hudson next?
The only thing the Oakland Athletics have left to play for is staving off postseason elimination as long as possible, so why not give the people what they want? Why not jump into a pool of nostalgia and remember the good times?
So the A’s on Wednesday called up Barry Zito, their former ace and Cy Young winner, from Triple-A Nashville. Zito, 37, had hoped for an MLB comeback this season when he signed a minor-league deal with the A’s, the team that drafted him in the first round in 1999.
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Instead, Zito spent the year in the minors. He was 8-7 with a 3.46 ERA, a solid contributor but not sparkling enough to warrant a big-league call-up. Until now, that is.
This is likely an MLB farewell for Zito. The A’s — with their shared history and his popularity in the Bay Area — offered Zito the best chance to return to the big leagues. It would be a surprise if he tried again next season.
Here’s perhaps the best wrinkle in this story: Zito could very well pitch his final game when the A’s meet the San Francisco Giants next weekend and face former teammate Tim Hudson. Hudson and Zito, along with Mark Mulder, formed Oakland’s formidable (and extremely popular) trio of pitchers early in the 2000s.
Hudson, 40, is set to retire at the end of the season. The Giants had already lineup a Sept. 26 start for Hudson in Oakland as a send-off. That prompted Hank Schulman, the longtime Giants scribe at the San Francisco Chronicle, to start campaigning for a Zito vs. Hudson matchup last week.
[Elsewhere: White Sox call on two position players to pitch in blowout loss to A’s.]
Hudson has said he wants to see it happen too. He recently told the Chronicle’s John Shea:
“It would be some kind of storybook ending for both of our careers, for sure,” said Hudson, who texted Zito before his final Triple-A appearance. “I told him I was thinking about him and pulling for him. If that was something that could happen, it would be awesome.”
Now the A’s just need to do their part.
Setting the two of them up to face each other may not be the most thrilling September 2015 pitching matchup, but oh boy, would it great for nostalgia. And baseball fans would eat it up.
UPDATE: Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting the A’s don’t plan to use Zito as a starter, per assistant general manager David Forst. The concern is that Zito hasn’t pitched enough recently — one inning in the last six weeks — to start. So our dreams of a Zito vs. Hudson matchup are probably dead. Here’s more from Slusser:
Could that change? It could, even if it’s unlikely. Remember that the A’s previously said they weren’t going to call up Zito and here we are today.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
