The Highest Paid Reliever

Who is the highest paid relief pitcher in all of baseball?

Would you guess Barry Zito?

Yes, the same Barry Zito who signed a 7 year, $126 million contract has been moved to the Giants bullpen. He is the same Barry Zito who won the Cy Young Award in 2002 winning 23 games. However, he is the same in name only. He is a far cry from that form.

He is 0-6 this season in 6 starts. Well you may all say the Giants are a light hitting team, but his ERA is over 7. Even the team where Bonds and Aurilia combined for over 100 home runs could not help this man win a game (see 2001 Giants).

What happened to this pitcher? Talent doesn’t just disappear, does it? Well perhaps for Roberto Alomar in 2002, it does, but he was getting older. Zito is still in his prime. He’s never been on the DL. No one has seen any structural damage to him.

Here’s what I believe is the problem. Rick Peterson, the current Mets pitching coach, refined his skill and made him into a great pitcher. Zito, because of the wear and tear of a season, started compensating for some minor pains he had by altering his mechanics slightly changing the way he pitches. With Peterson no longer being with Zito, the new pitching coach was unaware of how Peterson made Zito dominant. These compensations turned into habits which then turned into his new mechanics. These new mechanics are not as good and Peterson is not there to fix him.