Barry Zito is trying the old "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" trick.
CBSSports.com reported Monday night that the 36-year-old Zito, whose $18 million option for 2014 was declined by the San Francisco Giants, is taking his ball and going home. For a year.
According to CBSSports.com, Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area reported in December of 2013 that Zito was contemplating taking 2014 off and then looking to return in 2015.
He went 5-11 with a 5.74 earned run average with the Giants in 2013, one season after he seemingly resurrected his career by going 15-8 in 2012 and winning Game 5 of the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals that helped catapult San Francisco into the World Series, where the team beat the Detroit Tigers in a sweep.
Zito is infamous for having signed a seven-year, $126 million deal with San Francisco before the 2007 season. He had gone 102-63 with the Oakland A's in the seven seasons prior to that, but had only a 63-80 record with the Giants.
That caused debate over whether his contract was the worst in baseball history.
Baggarly wrote that Zito spent Christmastime in Maui, surfing, rather than trying to hook up with another MLB team.
"Zito, who received a $7 million buyout from the Giants, is not actively looking for a major league job at this time, as I understand it," Baggarly wrote. "While GMs are busy looking for deals, he's relaxing in Hawaii. But I'm told that Zito most certainly is not retiring, either. Even if he takes a year to reboot, which is no sure thing, he wants to pitch again in 2015.
Zito has told me many times that he'd love to emulate left-hander Jamie Moyer, who kept on tossing past his 49th birthday. Zito ... is a relative pup compared to Moyer."
Another indication that Zito is not looking to pitch in 2014 lies in a Los Angeles Times report that he put up both his homes for sale in Hollywood Hills West, Calif., and Marin County, Calif., this year.
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