On Baseball: To get A-Rod, Giants might have to deal Zito

Now that the Barry Bonds divorce from the Giants is official, what with the home run king filing for free agency Monday, and with Alex Rodriguez deciding to opt out of his contract with the New York Yankees on Sunday, it's time for San Francisco to become a major player in the A-Rod Sweepstakes.

Now.

The Giants, who finished in last place in the N.L. West for the first time since 1996, desperately need to make a big splash that makes sense, both on the field and off.

This is it.

And we have a way to make it financially feasible to secure the services of Pay-Rod, the bidding for whom figures to begin in the $30-million-per-season neighborhood – trade Barry Zito to the only franchise silly enough, desperate enough and well-heeled enough to absorb the remaining $116 million and six years of Zito's ghastly contract.

Yes, that would be Boo-Rod's former team. The Yankees have suddenly and shockingly fallen to second fiddle behind their hated rivals from Boston, the Red Sox having just won their second World Series in four years after going without since 1918. For those that see pinstripes as a fashion statement, there is no fate worse than looking up at the Sox.

With pockets deeper than their sense of myopia, an aging and ineffective starting pitching staff in shambles, a psychotic desire to stay even, if not ahead, of Boston and Hank Steinbrenner showing the same grandiose pomposity as his old man, the Yankees would be foolish to not listen to the Giants, even as they shied from pursuing Zito on the free-agent market last winter. The left-hander is still relatively young, won his Cy Young Award in the A.L. and, like Rodriguez, is represented by uber-agent Scott Boras.

Who should the Giants get in return? Who cares? OK, maybe a few farmhands. You get the drift.

Great guy that he is – his charity work with military families is more than commendable – Giants fans would hardly shed a tear if Zito were gone after being paid like a No. 1 (his seven-year, $126 million deal is the most expensive for a pitcher in the game's history) but performing like a No. 4 (at 11-13 and with a career-worst 4.53 ERA, it was the first losing season of his eight-year career). Especially with the rise of youngsters Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Noah Lowry.

Zito is due a $4.5 million bump next season, up to $14.5 million. That would make saying "Zito, we hardly knew ye" that much easier to utter.

But Zito's monster contract is far from alone in handcuffing the Giants, whose payroll of $90.2 million last season was 12thhighest in baseball.

Thanks in part to nearly $15 million in bumps to nine players under contract, the Giants have already committed $51.7 million to Zito, Randy Winn ($8 million), Ray Durham ($7.5 million), Dave Roberts ($6.5 million), Bengie Molina ($6 million), Rich Aurilia ($4.5 million), Lowry ($2.25 million), Steve Kline ($1.75 million) and Cain ($700,000).

That's not counting what the Giants might pay Omar Vizquel and Pedro Feliz, both of whom general manager Brian Sabean acknowledged are interested in re-signing.

In a conference call Thursday to announce the hiring of Carney Lansford as hitting instructor, Sabean was his usual cryptic self when asked about other team issues.

"When you finish in last place you've got to be open to change," he said in one breath.

"We're going to have to cross the bridge and trade some of our pitching to address our fielding needs," he said in another.

When gauged his interest in Nay-Rod's high-priced availability, Sabean was equally coy.

"I don't even know if they know what their (financial) expectations are," he said. "You have to do your due diligence, is the best way to put it ... kicking the tires.

"In baseball, anything's possible. How probable is anyone's guess. It could hamstring or choke anything you want to do (payroll-wise) for a while."

Such as Zito's contract currently does.

Still, we repeat what we said this summer, after Stray-Rod threw enough flirtatious glances at the waterfront park during an interleague series to suggest his interest in relocating from the South Bronx to China Basin was genuine – that Giants executives should do backflips and bellyflops into McCovey Cove to procure his services, rename the walkway under the giant glove and Coke bottle in left field the "A-Rod Arcade."

Besides, the Giants are dogpaddling dangerously close to irrelevancy in the N.L. West now that Colorado rode the wild card to the World Series, Arizona won the division, San Diego is always tough and the Dodgers hired Joe Torre as their new manager.

And what better way for the Giants to tweak their SoCal rivals than to spirit A-Rod away from his former skipper, as well as the team that beat them in the 2002 Fall Classic? Before he morphs into L.A.-Rod with the Dodgers, or Big A-Rod with the Angels, the Giants should do everything in their power to ensure he becomes Bay-Rod.

Now.

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