Longtime major-league pitcher Barry Zito, a left-hander whose career arc spanned young phenom to Cy Young Award-winner to aging journeyman eager to bid a fond farewell, made official Monday what was a foregone conclusion: He's retiring, he wrote for The Players' Tribune .
"I’m retiring today from baseball, but I’ll never be too far away from the game that made me who I am," he writes.
Zito, 37, finished a 15-year career with a 165-143 record and a 4.04 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award with the A's in 2002, his third season, when he went 23-5. He was named to the All-Star team three times, all with the A's, for whom he was 102-63 in eight seasons.
Zito played for two Giants teams that won World Series in 2010 and 2012, though he made only one start, a victory in 2012 against the Tigers.
In fact, his seven-year, $126 million deal with the Giants, for whom he went 63-80 from 2007-13, is regarded by some as one of the worst contracts in MLB history.
He made two starts for the A's toward the end of the season, a nod from the franchise with which he broke in but also an acknowledgement that his career was at its end, particularly after he spent most of 2015 with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, an experience he called a "year of renewal."
"I am beyond thankful to be at peace with walking away, thanks in large part to my year of renewal in Nashville with the Sounds," he writes. "My return to Oakland last month was a 'cherry on top' moment in my life that my family and I will never forget. I will no doubt be in the stands on both sides of the Bay in years to come."
