Now that baseball’s offseason is in full swing, it’s time to look at some of the worst contracts that have been handed out via free agency. Here we’re looking at the biggest, longest mistakes that have hindered their respective franchises.
For purposes of this list, we’ll be judging these deals by not only how bad they’ve been thus far, but also how bleak the future looks for them.
5. Prince Fielder: 9 years for $214 million, starting in 2012
Fielder has performed better than some others who have monstrous contracts like B.J. Upton, Dan Uggla, and Jayson Werth. But the 29-year-old Fielder, who slugged a career-worst .457 this past season, is still owed $168 million over the next seven seasons.
Could he have a bounce-back season in Texas? Sure, but the guy has limited defensive value and the future prospects of overweight hitters over the age of 30 aren’t that great.
Think Ryan Howard, who would have made this list had his contract not been an extension. The former MVP hasn’t slugged better than .500 since 2010—when he was 30. He’s still owed $85 million over the next three years. Fielder might bring good value the next two to three years, but after that, this contract is really going to look bad.
4. Josh Hamilton: 5 years for $125 million, starting in 2013
Hamilton is the wild card in this lineup of bad contracts. The former MVP was dreadful this past season for the Angels hitting a career-worst .250 with 21 home runs. With four years and roughly $106 million left on a back-loaded contract for a 32-year-old, it looks like a complete bust.
But Hamilton has been down before. He was the top pick of the 1999 draft and was let loose by Tampa Bay due to off-the-field problems that slowed his productivity. The Reds took a flyer on him in the 2006 Rule 5 draft and voilà, he suddenly became a star. Can he turn it around again? Who knows, but at least there’s a precedent.
3. Carl Crawford: 7 years for $142 million, starting in 2011
Carl Crawford was once one of the top non-power hitting lineup threats in baseball. In fact, he was a great two-way player coming off the 2010 season when he won his first Gold Glove, playing in the outfield.
That’s when Boston scooped him up to give them a scary-fast top of the lineup of Ellsbury, Crawford, and Pedroia.
Speed was definitely Crawford’s biggest asset. The four-time All-Star averaged 50.0 steals and 12.4 triples a season in his last eight seasons in Tampa Bay while hitting .296.
But injuries (including his hamstring) quickly derailed Crawford and dwindled his speed in his first season with the Red Sox. He’s been an expensive shell of himself ever since. Now with the Dodgers, Crawford has swiped a total of 38 bases in the three years since he hit free agency, while averaging just 92.3 games played per season.
In addition, the 32-year-old is still owed more than $80 million over the next four seasons.
2. Alex Rodriguez: 10 years for $275 million, starting in 2008
Much has been written about A-Rod of late—both on and off the field. We’ll focus on his on-the-field exploits here.
Coming off his third MVP award in 2007, when he hit .314 with 54 home runs and 156 RBIs, A-Rod opted out of his previous record-setting 10-year, $252 million deal. Looking for an even better deal, he somehow got it—despite angering the Yankees by choosing free agency.
A-Rod’s first three seasons of the new deal were good. He hit at least 30 home runs and drove in 100 or more runs from 2008 to 2010. But then the injuries started.
The last three seasons he’s averaged just 88.3 games played, 13.7 home runs, and a .269 average. Now at age 38, the next four seasons he’s owed in excess of $86 million and that doesn’t include any bonuses for milestone home runs. In fact, the only thing keeping him from being tops on this list is his possible ban next season.
1. Albert Pujols: 10 years for $240 million, starting in 2012
There have been lavish contracts handed out that looked bad the day they were signed—this actually isn’t one of them.
Pujols was coming off his worst season as a Cardinal, though it was believed that the stalled contract talks with St. Louis were the reason for his so-so start to the season. Still, he ended up hitting .299 with 37 home runs and 99 RBIs, while finishing fifth in the MVP voting.
In that same postseason, he completely redeemed himself with a .353 batting average and 691 slugging percentage in leading the Cardinals to another World Series title.
Now two years into the deal with the Angels, Pujols hasn’t looked anything like the three-time MVP he was in St. Louis. In 2012, he hit a respectable, but not spectacular, .285 with 30 home runs and 105 RBIs. But this past season saw him play in just 99 games while hitting just 258—easily a career-worst.
At age 32, it’s unlikely Pujols will revert back to the MVP-form he once had that the Angels are paying him to be. Even worse he has a back-loaded contract that pays him roughly $212 million in escalating salaries over the next eight years.
Is he the worst player in the game? Of course not. But this is the worst contract out there.
