Barry Zito wasn't prepared to end his baseball career as a pariah in San Francisco.
Instead, the 36-year-old left-hander decided Monday to venture eastward for a chance at redemption.
Zito reportedly agreed to a minor-league contract with the Oakland Athletics on Monday following a year-long hiatus from baseball, reuniting with the club that drafted him and employed him through the halcyon days of his career.
Armed with a devastating curveball and a knack for inducing fly balls, Zito thrived throughout his seven seasons in Oakland, his pitching style tailored perfectly to the spacious confines of O.co Coliseum. Upon arriving in the big leagues in July of 2000, Zito quickly established himself as one of the game's premier lefties, crafting a 2.72 ERA (173 ERA+) in his abbreviated rookie season before claiming the AL Cy Young award two years later.
Zito, however, was equally renowned for his eccentric personality, embodying laid-back Californian ideals in a rotation that also featured the southern-fried stylings of Tim Hudson and the mercurial Mark Mulder from 2000 to 2004.
Zito's stint in Oakland was nothing short of idyllic, but the cost-conscious Athletics were never a serious threat to sign him to an extension in 2006 with free agency looming. The Giants ultimately scooped him up, signing him to an ill-fated seven-year deal that ended mercifully after the 2013 season.
Though Zito was unable in San Francisco to replicate the success he enjoyed on the other side of the Bay Bridge, his impending reunion with the Athletics could provide a compelling epilogue to his volatile career.
Under normal circumstances, it's highly unlikely any MLB club would be desperate enough to let Zito - author of 4.97 ERA (70 ERA+) with a 1.57 strikeout-to-walk ratio since 2011 - contend for a rotation spot, but the Athletics are in somewhat dire straits. Both Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin aren't expected to return until midseason, and general manager Billy Beane further compromised his team's rotation depth in 2015 by trading away Jeff Samardzija earlier this offseason.
As such, the club's tentative 2015 rotation is highly inexperienced: Jesse Hahn, Drew Pomeranz and Kendall Graveman have 52 starts at the major-league level between them.
Admittedly, Zito's prospects of a career renaissance are slim. His fastball has hovered between 84-85 miles per hour since 2011, and he lacks the weapons necessary to neutralize right-handed hitters. Even aspirations of approximating Mark Buehrle fall flat, as Zito lacks the command - and, arguably, the guile - exemplified by the Toronto Blue Jays' senior southpaw.
But if Zito is going to enjoy one last modicum of success, Oakland is the most reasonable of venues for him to do so. The cavernous ballpark suppresses right-handed power better than almost every other AL stadium, and despite Beane's offseason tinkerings, the Athletics still retained a few of the players responsible for Oakland's league-leading .728 defensive efficiency rating last season.
That said, Zito will still need to show this spring something that distinguishes him from the guy who labored to a 5.74 ERA in 2014, wherein he allowed 173 hits and 19 homers in 133 1/3 innings for San Francisco.
Zito, however, showed earlier in his career his willingness to defy convention. When pitchers and catchers report for their first official workout on Friday, maybe Zito can find a way to flout the ravages of age, recent history, and the lingering stigma of seven forgettable years in San Francisco.
