Giants sign Planet Zito, $126 mil/7 yr deal

If I were a sought-after major league baseball free agent deciding which club to sign with, there would be four factors to consider:

1. Contract quality (how many years, how much money, club/player options, no-trade clauses, incentives)

2. Club's potency and likelihood of making the playoffs

3. Location

4. Existing relationships with other players or management staff

Today, the San Francisco Giants signed Barry Zito and his loopalicious curveball to a 7-year, $126 million contract. If you are Zito, here is how those factors line up with the Giants:

1. Incredibly, friggingly awesome. He gets amazing job security with 7-years and a full no-trade clause, and becomes the highest-paid pitcher in the history of the game. Even if he begins to decline (a likely prospect) it is Zito and Zito alone who will determine if he remains in Halloween colors.

2. Iffy. While the NL West is no longer the worst division in baseball (that honor belongs to the Senior Circuit's Central Division), it remains decidedly weak. The top three teams in the division (the Dodgers, Padres and Giants) have all made their share of moves this offseason. The Rockies and Diamondbacks have yet to make the drastic roster changes they require to be legitimate playoff contenders.

However, out of those three teams, you have to see the division as a race between the Dodgers and the Padres. Those two teams have either stayed the course (the Dodgers) or made marginal improvements (the Padres). Those two teams ended the 2006 season tied, and while the Giants found themselves 11.5 games behind Los Angeles and San Diego. The Giants have about broke even this offseason--they lost a good pitcher in Jason Schmidt, but gained another (albeit one who is lung-tighteningly expensive) in Barry Zito. They resigned the “other” Barry in baseball, keeping the steroid-enhanced cap on their bottled elixir of veteran ineptitude in place.

3. After spending six years in Oakland, Zito is already familiar with the frigid and moist Bay Area, and does not have to find a new place to live. He reportedly enjoys living in a large city, and while San Francisco is not the first- or second-largest media market in the country, it likely provides the glitz and glamour the quirky Zito desires.

4. None that I know of.

With that in mind, it appears that Zito’s priorities fell in the following order:

1, 3, 2, 4.

If winning a World Series were his primary priority, he would have signed with the Mets or my Angels. The Mets made it to the ALCS last year, and the Angels have a decent shot of making up for the embarrassing second-place finish of last season. The Texas Rangers, while an improved club, still lack the pitching to seriously contend in the AL West. Seattle? They won’t have a shot at the division while GM Bill Bavasi continues to shatter the hopes and dreams of M’s fans.

Location would have been a wash—the Mets (it’s New York, duh) and Angels (Zito is from Southern California and his family still lives here) are as attractive as the Giants in that regard. This was the Texas Rangers’ greatest drawback—Arlington? I’m sorry. Seattle would have been a decent city for Zito to live and find his spiritual center. It worked for Kurt Cobain.

So it his eventual choice is any indication, Barry Zito cares most about location and money. While his addition to the San Francisco rotation makes that club more potent, it is unlikely that they’ll make another run for the World Series in the near future.