Last month we learned that Barry Zito was making a comeback after sitting out all of 2014 and now John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the 36-year-old left-hander will throw for interested teams in January.
Here’s the latest on Zito, via agent Scott Boras:
He’s been working hard on his mechanics. He doesn’t cup the ball anymore. His drive to home plate is a little bit different than it was. He has some new mechanical evolutions he’s been working on to really advance what he thinks will be effective.
Zito was terrible for the Giants in 2013, posting a 5.74 ERA and .314 opponents’ batting average on the way to losing his spot in the rotation. He was a decent back-of-the-rotation starter in 2012, but Zito has basically been a below-average starting pitcher since signing with San Francisco in 2007.
He’ll surely have to take a minor-league contract and prove himself, assuming he impresses enough next month to get some offers.
