Giants keeping Zito, despite struggles

Despite the recent struggles of Barry Zito, the San Francisco Giants will not designate the lefty for assignment or remove him from the roster, manager Bruce Bochy told reporters on Monday.

The Giants need to open up two 40-man roster spots to accommodate 40-man roster spots, but Zito will not be a casualty.

From Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area:

The Giants will need to trim two players from the 40-man roster on Wednesday to clear space for some of their September call-ups.

And Barry Zito looks more trimmable than a Noble fir the day after Thanksgiving.

But Zito will remain on the roster, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. He’ll survive the cut, even though his usefulness with the club has reached its end. And that means he will make it to the end of the guaranteed portion of that seven-year, $126 million contract he had tattooed on his forehead so long ago.

Zito has been a disappointment of epic proportions since he signed a massive seven-year deal with San Francisco worth $126M with a $18M for 2014 and $7M buyout (an option the Giants will most definitely take this offseason).

Despite his struggles, Zito played a big role in the Giants' 2012 World Series championship. The former Oakland Athletic pitched a brilliant Game 5 in the NLCS vs. St. Louis and beat Justin Verlander and the Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.

This season, Zito has been as bad, if not worse, than the contract the Giants gave him, posting a 5.91 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 128.0 IP and a 1.74 WHIP.

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