In a league with no salary cap like the MLB, teams can sometimes throw their money around pretty carelessly. Teams have definitely taken big chances on guys that they shouldn’t have, which have led to numerous awful contracts throughout the history of the MLB. Here are five of the worst.
1. Chan Ho Park – 5 years/$65 Million with the Rangers
(source: http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/)
Park had five consecutive winning seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers and was due for a pay day and it was the Rangers that gave it to him. Initally, the Rangers thought they had found their number one starter, but soon realized that wasn’t the case. In his three and a half years with the team, he never posted an ERA of better than 5.45 in any of those years.
2. Carlos Silva – 4 years/$48 Million with the Mariners
(source: rantsports.com)
This was a very strange one as Silva was nothing but a mediocre pitcher throughout his career. Why the Mariners paid this much is a mystery and the sad part is, they didn’t even get the mediocre pitcher they should have, he was just plain bad. He went 4-15 his first season in Seattle and then followed that up with a 1-3 season in 8 starts before being traded.
3. Andruw Jones – 2 years/$36.2 Million with the Dodgers
(source: cbssports.com)
Andruw Jones was an absolute star for the Atlanta Braves and was among the best hitters in the league and was also a 10 time Gold Glove winner. After signing this massive deal with the Dodgers in 2008, a lot was expected from him. Unfortunately, he came into the season out of shape, didn’t perform well when he played, and then got injured after less than 50 games. And once he did return, he found himself riding the bench due to continued struggles to get it going.
4. Barry Zito – 7 years/$126 Million with the Giants
(source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/)
During his time with the Oakland A’s, Zito was one of the premier pitchers in the league. In Oakland he went 102-63 with a Cy Young award and numerous all-star visits. These numbers got him an absolutely massive deal with eh Giants. Unfortunately for San Fran, he never was able to return to form and basically got worse in every single way. While he has had some decent moments for the team, including in the playoffs, these were few and far between and not worth the 9 figure price tag.
5. Bobby Bonilla with the Mets
(source: nesn.com)
Now this is an interesting and rare case, but is definitely among the worst of all time. His initial contract was a 5 year/$29 Million deal that made him the richest man in baseball, but that wasn’t his bad contract as he actually played well. However, once he returned to the Mets in 1999, he was awful and did nothing but argue with coaches. And the Mets, instead of just paying his $5.9 Million buyout, they opted to defer payment until 2011 and then pay him a million dollars a year for the next 25 years, with 8 percent interest. This means they are still paying the man and will be paying him for many years to come.
