Barry Zito has signed the most lucrative contract for a baseball pitcher in history, signing with the Giants for seven years and $126 million.
Zito's a very good pitcher, no question. But there's no way he's worth that much money. He's not one of the five best pitchers in baseball, or even the ten best. And, the signing doesn't exactly fit in with the Giants' strategy so far this year, which is to replace last year's 35-year-old free agents, with this year's, in the process putting together a lineup in which the youngest regular is 31.
I predict they're trying to dump him within three years- see, "Rangers, A-Rod"- and he'll be a Met after all.
This whole situation also concerns me because it'll make it a lot harder for the Twins to keep Johan Santana, who is a significantly better pitcher than Zito is (despite losing to him in Game 1 of the ALDS.) If Zito is worth $126m, what's Johan worth? $150m? The odds of him being on the mound when the new park opens in 2010 just got a lot longer.
Posted by Stephen Silver at December 29, 2006 09:33 PM