Zito rose to prominence as a member of the “Big Three” of Oakland’s starting rotation in the early 2000s, along with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.
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The left-hander out of USC was the A’s first-round draft pick in June, 1999, and pitched the first seven of his 14 big league seasons with the A’s before moving across the bay to finish up with San Francisco.
Seemingly out of the blue today, the A’s tweeted that they have called up Zito, 37, from their minor league farm team in Nashville.
Zito left the A’s after the 2006 season, getting a $126 million, seven-year contract with the San Francisco Giants.
In 24 appearances with Nashville this season, Zito had a 3.46 ERA, 91 strikeouts and 60 walks in 138 innings. “Because our pitching was so good at the time, they were afforded the chance to try something different”.
There’s no word on when Zito will make his 2015 debut with the A’s.
It’s been a long, painful season for the Oakland A’s.
A’s pitcher Barry Zito, leaves in the 6th inning to a standing…
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There is a crack in the door, however, for Zito to maybe get one special start. In what could be the final season for both pitchers, that would be a fun way to end their careers. He won a Cy Young Award in 2002 and had a ERA of 3.55 in 222 starts during that time frame. Athletics manager Bob Melvin and Giants manager Bruce Bochy could have a gentlemen’s agreement to set aside the designated hitter for a day and let Hudson and Zito face each other, for one last bit of bragging rights. The A’s are one of the worst clubs in the American League while the Giants trail the Dodgers by 7.5 games in the NL West and the Cubs by 7.5 games in the NL wild-card race. Though he helped win a World Series in 2012, the southpaw failed to recreate the same success in his new home, managing a mediocre 4.62 ERA during his tenure there. With 17 games remaining in the season, Zito will likely get one final Major League Baseball start to close out a marvelous career.
