Would the Giants really consider buying out Barry Zito’s
contract? Let’s answer that question with another one: If you had
an annoying ulcer
— one that wasn’t going to kill you, but was keeping you
miserable every hour of every day with only occasional letups — how
much would it be worth for you to get rid of that ulcer
forever?
SAN JOSE
Would the Giants really consider buying out Barry Zito’s contract?
Let’s answer that question with another one:
If you had an annoying ulcer — one that wasn’t going to kill you, but was keeping you miserable every hour of every day with only occasional letups — how much would it be worth for you to get rid of that ulcer forever?
Follow Free Lance Sports on Twitter.
You’d probably pay a lot. But you would not pay $64.5 million. You would probably just keep taking antacid and hoping for the best.
That $64.5 million figure is what the Giants would have to hand Zito if they want him to go away. The only other option would be to find another team that would trade for Zito and his salary.
And that’s not going to happen. At last report, major league team executives do not take hallucinogenic drugs. So odds are, the Giants will endure the ulcer a while longer and keep Zito on the roster as their No. 5 starter.
Nevertheless, speculation is rampant about Zito’s future following this week’s San Francisco Chronicle report that the Giants were nearing the end of their rope with him. Zito finished the 2010 season as the team’s mushiest, most unreliable arm. He won one game after Aug. 11. The other day in his first spring training appearance, he looked equally bad, walking five of the 13 batters he faced.
Even worse, according to the report, Zito did not show up at Scottsdale in acceptable professional shape for someone scheduled to earn $18.5 million this season. The unhappy Giants front office is therefore thinking about cutting him or sending him to the minors or putting him on double secret probation. Or something.
Our man Andrew Baggarly chased down Zito about these reports, and he basically pleaded ignorance. Fair enough. But reading between the lines, you can be sure of two things:
1. Before any of this blew up, the Giants had already talked to Zito about it face-to-face and man-to-man. And they weren’t pleased with the response. So someone went the next step and leaked the club’s displeasure to the media, in the hopes that public scorn would snap Zito to attention. That’s how things work in the baseball world. Talking to Baggarly, Zito said he was stunned by the report. What that means: He was stunned that the private laundry became public.
2. One or more of the younger Giants players must have quietly expressed dismay about Zito to team management, which sent up red warning flags because the younger Giants — Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Buster Posey, et al. — have become the team’s heartbeat. And no one wants that heartbeat to get heartburn.
Think about it. Lincecum will be well-paid at $9 million this season. But the last thing the Giants can afford to happen is for Lincecum to look across the room at Zito, perceive that the veteran pitcher is on cruise control, and say to himself: “This guy is making twice as much money as I am?”
Especially because last summer, as Lincecum has since admitted, he allowed his own core training to slacken off and saw his pitching slump before he redoubled his fitness efforts and finished strong. Lincecum doesn’t need the temptation of thinking someone else on the team can get away with slacking off.
Zito is not a bad guy. He’s a little loopy at times. But he’s not a grump, a malcontent or a jerk. He has a good heart. He does sincere charity work. It’s not his fault that the Giants, under previous ownership, decided to overpay him. And he has endured the past four travail-strewn seasons without a whine or pout, earning much respect.
At the same time, it’s possible Zito came to this training camp with the veteran attitude that he automatically had a job won and didn’t need to get extremely serious about the details until mid-March.
That happens frequently for consistently successful 32-year-old pitchers who win more than they lose every year. Those guys are cut some slack. However, Zito hasn’t had a winning season since the Giants signed him after the 2006 season. And with the acquisition of experienced Jeff Suppan as a potential No. 5 starter, Zito is expendable if not movable — unless the Giants are willing to pay a good chunk of his salary to the team that agrees to take him. And they still might find no takers.
(Hey, here’s an idea: How about if the A’s agree to buy out Zito’s contract and take him off the Giants’ hands — in exchange for the Giants dropping their territorial rights claim to the South Bay? The A’s could then move to San Jose, and Zito could get a fresh start back in the American League where he once thrived. Just a thought. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.)
Zito’s contract runs through 2013. The feeling here always was that when Zito reached the last 12 or 18 months of his contract, the Giants would have to think strongly about forking over the deal’s final $25 million to him and saying goodbye. But it’s way too early for that.
To be sure, Zito concluded the 2010 season by winning just one of his last nine appearances, with a 6.80 earned run average in those games. But he began the season by winning six of his first eight starts while compiling a 2.15 earned run average. Can the Giants risk throwing away the chance he might repeat such a performance?
Don’t think so. Unless Zito is a fool, he’ll get the message that someone in the Giants’ upstairs offices is obviously trying to send him. Zito can no longer be Mr. Cool, no worries, whatever. He has to bear down like a rookie trying to earn a roster spot.
No one is expecting him to be awesome. He simply has to be the fifth best starter. He also has to be the last guy out of the fitness/weight room every day, for image’s sake if nothing else.
Or to put it another way: Does he want to keep being an ulcer? Or does he want to be antacid?
— Column by Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News
