Get rid of Wells scenario: Wells for Zito

[LieCheatSteal]

Zito's Contract

7 years/$126M (2007-13), plus 2014 club option

signed by San Francisco as a free agent 12/06 (largest-ever pitcher contract at signing)
07:$10M, 08:$14.5M, 09:$18.5M, 10:$18.5M, 11:$18.5M, 12:$19M, 13:$20M, 14:$18M club option ($7M buyout)

Well's Contract

7 years/$126M (2008-14)
signed extension with Toronto 12/06
$25.5M signing bonus (paid in 3 $8.5M installments, March 1 2008-10)
08:$0.5M, 09:$1.5M, 10:$12.5M, 11:$23M, 12:$21M, 13:$21M, 14:$21M

Both have somewhat comparable contracts but Well's is a little more backended. However, this trade needs to be made for some sense of sanity and it does address each club's needs.

1) SF needs a little pop from their OF and don't need a mediocre starter when they have a rotation of Sanchez, Lincecum and Cain. Zito's become an eyesore there. Who knows, Wells can get on the "clear" (he has bulked up in recent years. Hmmm).

2) Toronto is sick of Wells and this is before his 20 mill+ kicks in. When it does and he's putting up sorry ass numbers, he's going to get lynched here. Bear minimum, Zito arrives and, yes, he's still overpaid but at least Toronto fans can hope for a rebound (and also see him only once every 5 days; a lot less of an eyesore than seeing Wells as a centerpiece. It's like the ugliest piece of furniture gets stored in one of the guest rooms as opposed to smack in the middle of the dining room).

I think Toronto will need to kick in some money to pay for Well's salary but, at the end of the day, it's better for everyone involved to do this. The players included. I think neither of them will be (Please Use More Appropriate Word) enough to reject this trade.... well maybe Zito would.

BTW, this would obviously be in the trade thread but there's no trade thread here.

[Mak]

I think now that Rios is gone its not going to happen. If we had Rios, i kind of like this deal. Right now I just don't see how it makes sense. We have too much pitching as it is and we need Wells out there if Snyder and Lind playing the corners.

[zilby]

agreed.

and look back, there is a trade thread.

viewtopic.php?f=123&t=897120

[Avenger]

As bad as Vernon is in Center Field, we'll have to live with him for a while because there are no alternatives. Our center field prospects are still a couple of years away(if they ever make it) and there aren't many option in Free agency either.

[Relentless88]

I don't care if Rios is gone, if we can get rid of Wells DO IT. Zito might be also a bad contract, but let's try something new. Maybe Doc influences him to return to form, or not, even then Zito's isn't as loaded in the later years and has a team option so it's shorter.

[why22]

As bad as Vernon is in Center Field, we'll have to live with him for a while because there are no alternatives. Our center field prospects are still a couple of years away(if they ever make it) and there aren't many option in Free agency either.

pfft we can sign a free agent

[youngLion]

No thank you. The team needs Wells' underachieving offense more than Zito's underachieving pitching. I'd hate to see what the AL east would do to a guy who has had an ERA of around 5 in the NL.

[Dr Positivity]

Zito in the AL East would be more disgusting than Vernon. And that's saying something

[carmelo115]

Zito in the AL East would be more disgusting than Vernon. And that's saying something

I'm not sure why but your avy and sig gives me the impression that you're a maniac.

[carmelo115]

Both are terrible, but if you think Zito can turn it around than so can Wells.

[tsherkin]

Zito's troubles are injury-related, no? And anyway, he's got 6 years where he played at roughly the level you'd want from him, and then the last few have been comparatively bad. Wells, however, has never played to a level that would indicate he deserves his contract. I wouldn't suggest that Wells has ever shown that he deserves a contract of his sort, but Zito is a three-time All-Star with a Cy Young who rocked an ERA+ of around 125 for over half a decade. That's a little different than Wells, IMO.

[Raps in 4]

I would love this.

Zito can still be serviceable, he's 8-11 with a 4.26 ERA this year, not too bad, and with Arnsberg I think he could be even better. Whereas Wells is the worst CF in baseball.

[Modern_epic]

Zito also pitches in the NL west.

[Mustard_Tiger]

No...Wells can still be a decent player if you turn him into a corner OF. Barry Zito could possibly be a #5 starter in the AL East...but why take him on? I'd rather just keep Vernon, and hope he bounces back to being a .800+ OPS bat.

[tsherkin]

Zito's velocity is coming back up and his curveball is coming back. I'd rather take a flier on Zito than on Wells.

[Mak]

Look at Cliff Lee in NL. If Zito can't keep his ERA under 4 in NL then it would be pretty scary in the best hitting division. Even his last 3 years in Oakland were not that great. It is absolutely crazy how Zito got so rich with one amazing year and one good year.

[youngLion]

As of today I would definitely keep Wells, for a couple of reasons. First of all, Vernon has only had one bad year, whereas Zito has been average to brutal for three seasons, ever since he signed that big contract and revamped his delivery in SF. That's not really the main issue here though. To me the bigger component here is team need. Look at the starting pitchers this team already has:

Halladay
Marcum
Romero
Rzepczynski
Cecil
Litsch
Richmond
Ray
McGowan

You can argue that a few of these guys are question marks, particularly McGowan, then to a lesser extent Litsch, Marcum and Doc, but either way the team is very deep at SP. Not only does the acquisition of Zito fail to fill any serious need, it could very well end up hurting the team by taking away a job from a younger, and quite possibly better pitcher. Now that Rios is gone this team doesn't have any other CF candidates with the potential to be good hitters, so Wells definitely fills a need if he even go back to his 2008 production. This team's problem has been the offense, not pitching. Why would you trade an asset that could fill a need for one that's so clearly redundant?

[tsherkin]

Isn't Zito's contract shorter, though?

[Schad]

Isn't Zito's contract shorter, though?

By a year, if he doesn't reach the rather-high performance levels (a 200 IP average for over any of his last season, last two seasons, or last three seasons) that would cause his 2014 option to vest. In terms of the value remaining, it breaks down like this:

Zito: $76m over four years, $7m buyout in 2014...or $87m/5 if the option vests.

Wells: $107m/5 years remaining.

This is a tough one; that's an awful lot of salary to excise, but I'm in agreement with the majority that Zito would get thrashed in the AL East. In terms of five-year averages, he's at an ERA+ of 101 and a WHIP of 1.37; run them over three years and it's 94 and 1.43, which is downright scary if facing the Sox, Yanks and Rays 10 times a year. Wells is no god, but his five-year OPS+ is 105, or 95 over the last three.

Nearly $25m in savings over the course of their respective contracts is hardly insignificant, but I'd rather let Wells flail about than have Zito as our long reliever, which is where I suspect he'd end up within a couple years.

[tsherkin]

I'm fine with him getting thrashed or be a MR/LR as long as we save the $25M and can put it back into the team, personally. That's a pretty decent contract to throw at a bat that we could use.

But I'd rather take the gamble than stick with Wells.