The worst contract on every MLB team

Arizona brought the then-renown Cuban slugger aboard before the 2015 season via a six-year, $68.5 million contract. He showed promise of being a potent middle-of-the-order presence in his second season, hitting 31 home runs and driving in 83. However, he was limited to only 47 games the following year and has barely appeared in the MLB since 2017. He is currently making $15 million, with another $17 million due in 2020.

Atlanta doesn’t truly have any bad long-term commitments currently, but Cole Hamels, Ender Inciarte and Melancon are all due nearly $40 million combined headed into the year. Each has had injury and/or performance concerns of late, with their returns being far from a certainty. Melancon was solid after coming over from San Francisco at the trade deadline last year; however he far from locked down the closer role, posting a 12.00 ERA over three NLDS appearances. Due $14 million in the last year of a four-year, $62 million deal, it is a hefty price tag for a former closer relegated to setup work instead.

The club kept Davis in town via a seven-year, $161 million contract before the 2016 season. But since signing the deal, he has set some of the most infamous low-bar performances in MLB history. His .168 average and -2.3 WAR were the lowest of all time by qualified MLB hitters. In 2019, he opened the year by going hitless in his first 21 at-bats, extending a run of futility that stretched back to the prior year to 49 straight hitless at-bats. Davis is due another $69 million through 2022.

Due to the mounting financial commitments the Red Sox accumulated during Dave Dombrowski’s oversight, the Red Sox had to trade away Mookie Betts a year in advance of free agency. Much of that is due to the five-year, $145 million extension to Sale, who was limited due to injuries over parts of the past two seasons. Now he has undergone Tommy John surgery to start 2020, which limits him into the second year of the deal as well. Not a great forecast ahead.

The Cubs heaped a massive eight-year, $184 million at Heyward in the winter of 2015, the largest contract ever awarded to a free agent outfielder at the time. He has remained an elite performer with the glove, capturing his fourth and fifth Gold Glove Awards as a Cub; however, his offensive returns have left much to be desired. He hit just .251 last season with 62 RBI.

Keuchel has remained effective, owning a 3.75 ERA over the previous two seasons in 53 starts. However, he has not excelled at missing bats, allowing the 12^th-most hits (9.25) per nine innings of pitchers and a .264 average against. Already not a hard thrower, far too many hitters are squaring him up, which doesn’t bode well for the life of the three-year, $55.5 million contract due to him in his new home in Chicago.

As is the case with many of the long-term extensions geared toward keeping a franchise cornerstone in place, there is a severe downside as it goes further along. Votto is beginning to reach those years where time is dragging down his performance, while his contract continues to keep his earnings high. He made $25 million in 2019 and has four more seasons ahead at the same rate. Meanwhile, he connected for only 12 home runs and 65 RBI in 2018 and had 15 homers and 47 RBI last season.

Just a year ago, Carrasco looked like a true value at four years and $47 million spread through 2022. But after a harrowing year in fighting off cancer, followed by a spring that brought an MRI on his elbow, and the life of the deal looks particularly rough for the cost-cutting Indians. If Carrasco can rally again and regain the form that made him a top four Cy Young finalist in 2017, then he immediately is a huge asset again; however an MRI during the shortened spring training did reveal elbow inflammation. It could be a big hindrance for a club that will need flexibility to re-sign Mike Clevinger over the next few years.

Although Davis led the NL in saves in 2018, two years into the deal, it is aging horribly. Davis was tagged to the tune of an .872 OPS and allowed an 8.65 ERA in 2019 — a year where he was the fourth-highest-paid relief pitcher in the game. His 2019 -1.3 WAR was the lowest of a pitcher with at least 15 saves in the last decade. Entering the final year of the deal, he has been relegated toward middle relief work with a hefty $17 million price tag.

Zimmermann’s career has been a tale of two halves, with most of the memorable moments coming before he inked a five-year, $110 million contract with the Tigers. Since switching over to the AL, Zimmermann is yet to reach double digits in victories in a season, owning a 24-32 record alongside a 5.30 ERA. He ended 2019 at a career-worst level, with a 6.91 ERA while making $25 million annually through 2020.

Houston made a bold move in adding Greinke to its already rich rotation a year ago, a move that brought them within a game of a second World Series championship. With Gerrit Cole gone, Greinke’s presence is even more important, but the hefty $35 million he is owed through 2021 is quite the burden. Although he has remained one of the better pitchers in the game entering his age-36 season, Greinke is at the point in his career where that could change quickly. And resources are considerably tighter for retaining George Springer or Carlos Correa with his money on the books.

When Kansas City signed Kennedy to a five-year, $70 million contract in 2016, the Royals were fresh off a World Series title and looking to stay in the competitive picture. Fast forward four years, and Kennedy is on the back end of a largely forgettable Royals tenure where he is nearly 20 games under .500 (19-35). Although he reinvented himself as a closer-by-necessity in 2019 and had some success, the overall investment is beyond salvageable at this point.

Pujols’ 10-year, $240 million contract has predictably aged terribly, as he is still making $29 million at age 40 and due another $59 million through his age-41 season. However, that is the cause and effect of luring the game’s greatest hitter (at the time) to Anaheim. Pujols has still hit some impressive milestones in the Angels cap, even if his tenure with the team has seen him reach the postseason just once.

Predictably, the early prognosis for Pollock’s tenure in Dodger blue is not looking good. His injury-plagued ways followed him to L.A., where he was limited to 86 games in 2019, hitting only .266 and producing a 0.2 WAR. He enters his second season as a lost in the shuffle amid a busy outfield, as Cody Bellinger, Mookie Betts, Joc Pederson and Kiki Hernandez are all in the mix as well. Meanwhile, his salary increases in each of the next two seasons to $15 million in 2020 and again to $18 million in 2021.

The Marlins went in big to land Chen to lead their rotation in 2016, and he never came close to returning the value. The lefty won 13 games over four seasons before being bad enough that even amid a massively intentional rebuilding effort, the club couldn’t justify starting him anymore. Chen was moved to the bullpen in 2019, where he pitched to a 6.59 ERA over 45 games before the Marlins cut their losses and released him. However, he is still on the books for $10 million in 2020, making him the largest financial commitment for the club.

Once on track to become arguably the greatest player in franchise history, Braun has digressed into little more than an ultra-expensive roadblock for the club’s younger talent. Braun will make $17 million in the final year of his 2011 extension in 2020, which has become completely unmovable due to Braun acquiring his 10-and-5 rights in 2017. This made a contract that already gave him veto power on deals to 23 teams already an ironclad anchor on the Brewers payroll.

The move to add Donaldson to their already power-flush lineup was one of the Twins' most aggressive, win-now moves of the offseason. It was also a huge example of throwing caution to the wind for a team as financially conscious by necessity as the Twins to sign the 34-year-old to a four-year, $93 million pact. It certainly helps in the immediate sense, but it could become a boulder of a deal when his past-35 prime hits and he is still due $21 million over the final two seasons of the deal.

With the modifications to Yoenis Cespedes’ albatross of a contract, Cano’s deal moves to the front of the line of bad Mets contracts. Coming off his lowest OPS (.736) since 2008 and entering his age 37 season, Cano has clearly moved into his decline phase. However, with four seasons of earning $24 million annually ahead of them, the Mets' curious decision to trade for this rapidly deteriorating deal remains a huge head-scratcher.

Although the $26 million still due to Jacoby Ellsbury — who has been absent from the field since 2017 and since released — remains an annoyance, Stanton’s deal is beginning to sound a few alarms as well. Since arriving in the Bronx two seasons ago on the heels of winning NL MVP, Stanton’s strikeout rate is up, home run rate is down and availability has tanked as well. He played just 18 games in 2019 while earning $26 million on the year. He was already slated to not start 2020 on time due to a calf strain, all while he still has another $208 million due guaranteed through 2027.

The $16 million that Davis is set to see annually over the next two years isn’t much in the baseball world at large, but it is a sizable commitment in Oakland. It is of the utmost importance that his downturn in 2019 was just a bump in the road, as opposed to a new norm. After topping 40 homers a year from 2016-2018, he dropped down to 23 last season, while hitting just .220. Even at his modest rate, it is one the A’s can’t afford to carry if his production remains anywhere close to the -0.3 WAR level it did in 2019.

When Arrieta headed to Philly ahead of the 2018 season, it was set to start the beginning of a run where the Phillies reversed their fortunes behind the lead of the 2015 NL Cy Young Award winner. While his tenure hasn’t been a complete disappointment, it hasn’t lived up to the $75 million he is set to earn through 2020. His ERA ballooned to 4.64 in 2019, while he allowed nearly 10 hits per nine innings. Arrieta’s decline is coming in at a time when he still has performance incentives that could earn him another $40 million through 2022. That is a big price tag for a No. 3 starter producing lower slot returns in his mid-30s.

Archer was looked at as being a potential major coup — and a borderline heist — when he was acquired by Pittsburgh from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline in 2018 in exchange for prospects Austin Meadows and Tyler Glasnow. But while Meadows and Glasnow have soared in their new home, Archer’s stock has continued to trend down. Once seen as a major bargain in comparison to his talent — $7 million in 2019 with a pair of team options totaling $20 million through 2021 — Archer’s ERA soared to over 5.00 in 2019 and he was shut down toward the end of last season.

Myers signed a six-year, $83 million extension in 2017, which is extremely backloaded, and his deal was structured to balloon from $3 million in 2019 to $20 million annually in 2020 through 2022, with a club option in 2023. Meanwhile, his production has continued to tail off to the point where it has become difficult to even complete a trade for him at this point . This is of particularly severe concern for the small-market Padres who have committed $440 million to Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer over the past two years, making every other dollar count that much more.

The Giants are still in the process of purging a number of bad deals from their ranks, but the toughest of all is Cueto. He returned from Tommy John surgery late in 2019 but made a total of 13 starts over the past two years while taking home $43.6 million in the process. To complicate things further, while Cueto should be back toward full health when he takes the mound again, he will reach his 10-5 trade veto rights this year, which would all but guarantee him an additional $42 million out of the Giants pockets.

Seager was slightly better in 2019 than the year before, when he produced an outright awful .221/.273/.400 split line. It still wasn’t enough to lessen the burden he has on the rebuilding Seattle roster. He is due $38 million through 2021 and is quickly becoming a candidate for the Mariners to dump for whatever minor prospect capital they can get back. Once an All-Star and Gold Glove Award winner, Seager’s .720 OPS since 2018 checks in at 31^st among all MLB third basemen.

Carpenter went absolutely ballistic in the second half of 2018, finishing with 36 home runs and 111 runs scored, and he was ninth in NL MVP voting. Despite having a season to go before reaching free agency, the Cardinals rewarded him with three-year extension worth upward of $55.5 million. But in what would have been the last year of his existing contract, Carpenter posted the worst season of his career, hitting .226 with only 37 extra base hits. There are likely serious second thoughts in the Cardinal front office, especially at a time when there have been so many other third base upgrades available on the market.

Kiermaier has remained an elite defender in center field, but he has also been consistently unavailable due to injury. He has appeared in over 130 games only once in his career and has averaged just 105 games per year since signing his six-year, $53.5 million extension in 2017. Starting in 2020, there is $33.8 million left on the deal, and for the small-market Rays, the return has to be a better showing at the plate (he owns a .223/.280/.386 split the past two seasons) and far greater availability.

Since Odor signed a six-year, $49.5 million extension in 2017, he hit .204, .253 and .205. Notoriously impatient at the plate as well, he has never posted an on-base percentage higher than .326. In 2019, his 178 strikeouts led the American League as well. While his power numbers stay strong (30 home runs or more in three of the past four years), he has broken even in replacement level — or worse — in two of the last three years.

Toronto wanted so badly to be done with the Tulowitzki era (or "error" in judgement, perhaps) that they were willing to release him over last winter outright, with $37 million still due to him over the next three years. Three years later, Tulo is still on the books for the Jays and is the highest-paid positional player in 2020 despite the fact he retired early in the 2019 season. That's just a remarkable legacy of the deal he signed with the Rockies way back in 2010.

There is a ton of risk in Corbin’s deal, the vast majority of which is yet to come. The lefty signed a six-year, $140 million contract with the Nationals in December 2018, one which is massively backloaded. Corbin made a manageable $12 million in the first year of the deal but it then steadily ramps up year by year. It stands to peak at $34 million in 2024 when Corbin turns 35. That is the definition of paying big for immediate returns while putting off a substantial risk for another day.