A recent graphic making the rounds on X put Barry Zito atop a list of the worst free-agent contracts in MLB history, but that ranking misses the part of the story SF Giants fans remember most.
Yes, Zito signed a seven-year, $126 million deal with San Francisco, and for much of that contract it looked like an expensive gamble gone sideways. His regular-season production with the Giants never matched the price tag, as he finished with a 4.62 ERA across seven seasons. But October of 2012 changed the way that deal is remembered.
Zito had already been left off the Giants’ playoff roster in 2010, so when 2012 arrived he had something to prove. His first postseason outing that year didn’t go smoothly.
In Game 4 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds, he lasted 2 and 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs before being pulled. San Francisco still won the game, but that was only a prelude.
The real turning point came in the NLCS, with the Giants trailing the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 and facing elimination in Game 5.
The assignment went to Zito, and he answered with the best start of his Giants career: 7 and 2/3 scoreless innings in a 5-0 win that forced the series back to San Francisco. The Giants then took Game 6 and Game 7 easily to advance to the World Series.
That set up a matchup few expected San Francisco to win. The Detroit Tigers came in with Justin Verlander and a strong pitching staff, plus a lineup led by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Zito drawing the Game 1 start against Verlander only added to the feeling that the Giants were outmatched.
Instead, Zito delivered again. Pablo Sandoval blasted three homers, and Zito held Detroit to one run over 5 and 2/3 innings while also adding an RBI single off Verlander. The Giants rolled to an 8-3 win and went on to sweep the Tigers for their second title in three years.
That October run changed everything about how Zito’s Giants tenure is viewed. Whatever frustration came before it, those two starts in 2012 erased the memory of the bad ones for a lot of people in San Francisco.
For Giants fans, that contract doesn’t belong on a list of disasters. It belongs in the chapter where Barry Zito became a hero.
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