Worst Free Agent Signings In Baseball History

[Chief Rum]

I thought this would be good for a fun discussion.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...pot/index.html

The 10 Spot

By Pete McEntegart

Center fielder Carlos Beltran is the jewel of this season's free-agent crop, and his agent Scott Boras is demanding a minimum offer of $112 million over seven years. So far the Mets seem to be the most ardent suitor. Beltran, 27, hit 38 homers and stole 42 bases a year ago before tearing up the postseason and seems like a sure thing. Of course, things don't always work out that way. Here are the 10 free-agent signings that went the most wrong:

1. Bobby Bonilla, Mets, 1992 -- When the Mets made the Bronx native the highest-paid player in the game with a five-year, $29 million contract, he told reporters that they'd never wipe the smile off his face. Before long, he was threatening to show the same scribes what "the Bronx" really meant, and he wasn't talking about swanky Riverdale. He hit .249 his first year while averaging a decent 26 homers and 79 RBIs in 3-½ seasons, but the Mets imploded and an increasingly chunky Bonilla was a target for the boo birds.

2. Mark Davis, Royals, 1990 -- Davis won the NL Cy Young for the Padres in 1989 with 44 saves and a 1.85 ERA. The Royals tossed him $9.4 million over three years, but Davis couldn't handle the pressure of a big contract. He saved just seven games over the course of the contract while Jeff Montgomery took over the closer role. The scuttlebutt was that Davis had a fragile ego that needed constant reassurance, which is not a trait one wants in a big-money signee.

3. Wayne Garland, Indians, 1977 -- Back in the heady early days of free agency, the Tribe waved a 10-year, $2.3 million deal in front of Garland, who was coming off a 20-7 season for the Orioles. In five years in Cleveland, Garland proved as valuable as tinsel on Dec. 26. He never had a winning season and compiled a 28-48 record.

4. Bruce Sutter, Braves, 1985 -- Ted Turner angered his fellow owners by signing the man who was then the game's top closer to a six-year, $10 million deal to pitch on TBS. In fact, Turner received an official censure from the other owners and helped inspire the owners' harebrained collusion scheme to limit free-agent signings, a decision that later cost them hundreds of millions in court. The Braves were taken to the cleaners as well, as an injury-plagued Sutter saved an average of 13.3 games in three seasons with ERAs of 4.48, 4.34 and 4.76.

5. Mo Vaughn, Angels, 1999 -- Anaheim made the Red Sox slugger the game's top-paid player with a six-year, $80 million deal. Vaughn sprained his ankle in the season opener and missed most of April, an unfortunate harbinger of his Angels stint. He hit a combined 69 homers his first two years but missed all of 2001 with a ruptured left biceps tendon before being shipped off to the luckless Mets. His career ended in 2003, but not his stream of mammoth paychecks. To add insult to injury, Disney CEO Michael Eisner testified in open court last month that his two worst personnel decisions were hiring Mike Ovitz and Vaughn.

6. Andy Messersmith, Braves, 1976 -- In the dawn of free agency, Turner offered Messersmith a then princely $1 million over three seasons. That seemed plausible considering that the pitcher had won 39 games during the previous two seasons and had never compiled an ERA above 3.01. It seemed less plausible when Messersmith won 16 games over the course of the contract.

7. Oscar Gamble, Padres, 1978 -- The man with the giant 'fro clubbed 31 homers for the White Sox in 1977 and cashed in with a six-year deal worth $2.85 million, not far from what the Yanks were paying Reggie Jackson (five years, $3.5 million). As it turns out, the Padres essentially bought a dotcom stock at its peak. The bubble burst quickly as Gamble hit seven homers and drove in 47 runs in '78 before he and his hair were shipped to Texas.

8. Eddie Lee Whitson, Yankees, 1985 -- Boss Steinbrenner handed Whitson $4.5 million over five years, but the country boy from Johnson City, Tenn., did not take to the big-city lights. He went 15-10 in 1-½ seasons for the Yanks, making his most notable impact by breaking the arm of manager Billy Martin with a karate kick in a Baltimore hotel on Sept. 22, 1985. Eventually the team tried to pitch Whitson only on the road to protect him from hostile home fans. Whitson later described his New York stint as a "living hell," matching the sentiment of Yanks fans.

9. Mike Hampton, Rockies, 2001 -- After helping lead the Mets to the World Series in 2000, Hampton signed an eight-year, $121 million deal with Colorado in part, he said, because he liked Denver's school system. Instead, Hampton received a costly lesson in how high altitude flattens a curveball. He went 21-28 in two seasons with ERAs of 5.41 and 6.15. On the bright side, the current Brave did hit 10 home runs.

10. Danny Tartabull, Yankees, 1992 -- Soon after the Mets signed Bonilla, Steinbrenner recaptured the back pages of the Gotham tabloids by making Tartabull the second-highest-paid player with a five-year, $22.5 million deal. Tartabull hit 81 homers in 3-½ seasons while never hitting higher than .266, though he did display excellent manners by eating a donut with a fork and knife on Seinfeld.

Honorable mention: Albert Belle, Orioles; Darryl Strawberry, Dodgers; Jaime Navarro, Brewers; Dave Collins, Yanks; Denny Neagle, Rockies

[SackAttack]

How in the world is the Chan Ho Park signing not even on "honorable mention"?

And for that matter, I guess this list doesn't take into account contract extensions or contracts where a player returns to his team, or else the Dreifort deal would be listed there.

[cuervo72]

No Lance Parrish??

[Senator]

Chan Ho, for the love of God!

[kcchief19]

He-he. I immediately thought of Mark Davis when I saw the title. That was in the stretch were Ewing Kauffman wanted to win one more time and laid out the bucks for Mark and Storm Davis. Mark did have a very fragile ego -- after his first-year flameout, the Royals went out to get a pitching coach he picked out, some chain-smoking dwarf the rest of the staff hated.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

3. Wayne Garland, Indians, 1977 -- Back in the heady early days of free agency, the Tribe waved a 10-year, $2.3 million deal in front of Garland, who was coming off a 20-7 season for the Orioles. In five years in Cleveland, Garland proved as valuable as tinsel on Dec. 26. He never had a winning season and compiled a 28-48 record.

In fairness to Garland, didn't he wreck his shoulder early on in that deal? I seem to remember it being a minor miracle he made it back at all.

[clintl]

No Rennie Stennett?

[Crapshoot]

Darren Dreifort ?

[Chief Rum]

I think it would be funny if they tossed on one or two of this offseason's signings, like Milton to the Reds or Ortiz to the D'Backs (not a comment on those deals, BTW; just picked two that have drawn some criticism on this board).

CR

[Bomber]

Giambi?

[Logan]

As a Met fan, I had the following as my AIM away message today, re: Beltran:

"For the first time since signing Bobby Bonilla in 1992, the Mets are getting a player I actually want. Let's hope this one turns out better than that one..."

[Sun Tzu]

Glen Davis?

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Bomber

Giambi?

Nah... Giambi had two VERY good years with the Yanks before last season. That places him out of this list automatically.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

Glen Davis?

I think Glenn Davis was a (very bad) trade.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/read...adlineMLB.html

[oykib]

Dreifort, definitely.

Park, too.

But it's almost unfair to list pitchers. Besides Mo Vaughn, they should be the whole list.

Usually a position player is good for at least half his contract. Pitchers just fall off the map.

The Mo Vaughn deal was just stupid. Pitchers are always a risk.

[MrBug708]

Carlos freaking Perez. 3 year deal at 7 million per year. Everyone is aware opf the poor unarmed Gatorade jug.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I think it would be funny if they tossed on one or two of this offseason's signings, like Milton to the Reds or Ortiz to the D'Backs (not a comment on those deals, BTW; just picked two that have drawn some criticism on this board).

CR

I think you have to atleast see how the players do before criticizing it

If you want an awful signing from Arizona that should have made the top 10, look no further than Todd Stottlemyre. The team signed him to a 4-year $32 million deal in 1999 (with deferred money they are still paying him now). What did he do over those four seasons? Well, he spent most of it on the DL but here's his numbers:

39 starts, 14-11, 4.77 ERA

Not exactly $32 million worth.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Carlos freaking Perez. 3 year deal at 7 million per year. Everyone is aware opf the poor unarmed Gatorade jug.

As bad as that was, Dreifort is worse. Perez was at least off the books in 3 years, whereas Dreifort doesn't come off 'til next year, and hasn't pitched hardly at all in the last 2+ seasons.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Dreifort doesn't come off 'til next year, and hasn't pitched hardly at all in the last 2+ seasons.

Let alone pitched well-- ever.

Well, there were those good sixty-three innings in 1997.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Arles

I think you have to atleast see how the players do before criticizing it

Well, that was the point of my joke--if they had already judged these contracts would be among the worst ever signed--even before the player played in one game.

CR

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by oykib

Let alone pitched well-- ever.

Well, there were those good sixty-three innings in 1997.

Considering the era, I wouldn't say he hasn't pitched well ever. I would say he hasn't pitched worth $11 million ever.

[daedalus]

Though the money isn't as big as his contemporaries, Derek Bell deserved a spot or two on that list.

[PilotMan]

Carlos Perez for LA. I mean he made something like 5-6 mil and he was injured for an entire season, and because his contract was guarenteed when they released him, they still had to pay out his contract.

'98 4-4 3.24 ERA 77 2/3 IP
'99 2-10 7.43 ERA 89 2/3 IP
'00 5-8 5.56 ERA 144 IP
'01 released and paid in full

1999	Los Angeles Dodgers	$2,333,333
2000	Los Angeles Dodgers	$5,333,333
2001	Los Angeles Dodgers	$7,833,333

note: his '98 salary was paid by the Expos.

[PilotMan]

dola, I guess that Driefort nor Perez really count since Darren has been with the team his whole career, and Carlos was traded for. But either way, they both suck.

[rkmsuf]

They might have to add Derek Lowe to the list this year.

[Draft Dodger]

the first thing I thought of was Matt Young signing with the Sox in 1990, for what was then a pretty decent contract (my recollection was $4 Million...baseball-reference is listing it a 2.6, which is still hefty).

one story says the reason the Sox signed Young was because Boggs had said he was tough to hit against. He went 3-11 over 2 years - I believe he also had a no-hitter taken away during that reign as well (a no-hitter he had lost? is that right?)

[Alan T]

I would think Nick Esasky would be on the list. After having a career year with the Red Sox which came after several good years with the Reds, the Braves brought him in for pretty big money to supposedly fill a giant hole they had at first base. The offseason of his signing (before he even played a game with the Braves), he gets diagnosed with vertigo and ended up playing only 9 games with the Braves before his career was over. Not bad considering he got 5 - 7 million dollars for those 9 games.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Considering the era, I wouldn't say he hasn't pitched well ever. I would say he hasn't pitched worth $11 million ever.

I would-- and did. He has a lifetime ERA+ of 95. That means he's pitched five percent less well than an average pitcher. Less than average is certainly not well.

[Honolulu Blue]

Not in the same league as the guys listed above, but the Tiger free agent mistake I remember most was Mike Moore. Three years, $10 million, and the only reason he had a halfway decent record for us (28-34) is that the team scored a zillion runs for him when he was on the mound.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

Glen Davis?

Glenn Davis was a trade. If I remember right is was Steve Finley, Curt Schilling, and Pete Harnisch for Glenn Davis.

EDIT - I didn't see the post 2 down after yours. Oops.

[Ramzavail]

Did you know that the Mets will continue to pay Bonilla until 2026?

Although, I think it was on his second tour with the Mets.

He still never wants to go away.

[Rasmuth]

How about another Met's one...George Foster...he was a shadow of his former self when he signed with the Mets.

[vtbub]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

the first thing I thought of was Matt Young signing with the Sox in 1990, for what was then a pretty decent contract (my recollection was $4 Million...baseball-reference is listing it a 2.6, which is still hefty).

one story says the reason the Sox signed Young was because Boggs had said he was tough to hit against. He went 3-11 over 2 years - I believe he also had a no-hitter taken away during that reign as well (a no-hitter he had lost? is that right?)

April 12, 1992

He walked 7 in 8 innings and lost 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader against Cleveland. An ugly game. Cleveland scored on an error in the first and a fielder's choice in the third. Kenny Lofton scored four bases that day. Cleveland stole seven all told.

[vtbub]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I would think Nick Esasky would be on the list. After having a career year with the Red Sox which came after several good years with the Reds, the Braves brought him in for pretty big money to supposedly fill a giant hole they had at first base. The offseason of his signing (before he even played a game with the Braves), he gets diagnosed with vertigo and ended up playing only 9 games with the Braves before his career was over. Not bad considering he got 5 - 7 million dollars for those 9 games.

Dola,

It's my fuzzy understanding that he had bouts of vertigo with the Sox and the Braves signed him anyway.

[Jets80]

The Mets signed the best FA on the market. This guy's got all five tools in his belt. 27 years old , and the Mets need to keep pace with the Brave. If the Mets did not offer him the cash another team would have, so don't say they overpaid becasue someone was going to. Also, the first thing Beltran did when he signed was call Carlos Delgado and told him he needed to join him in NY. If the Mets do sign Delgado.....They WILL win the NL East for the first time in think (12 years?). Great Signing for the Mets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sterlingice]

Some of these selections are just messed up, as these things always are. The fact that Chan Ho isn't on the list is absolutely criminal.

Just for it's pure humor value alone, I say Derek Bell and Operation Shutdown deserve honorable mention

SI

[stevew]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Some of these selections are just messed up, as these things always are. The fact that Chan Ho isn't on the list is absolutely criminal.

Just for it's pure humor value alone, I say Derek Bell and Operation Shutdown deserve honorable mention

SI

Operation Shutdown should be on that list definately. Even if his contract amounts werent that huge relatively, he was still making 4-5 million on a team with a meager payroll, and flat out refused to play. And then got paid anyways!

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by oykib

Let alone pitched well-- ever.

Well, there were those good sixty-three innings in 1997.

He was awesome at Wichita State .

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Ramzavail

Did you know that the Mets will continue to pay Bonilla until 2026?

Although, I think it was on his second tour with the Mets.

He still never wants to go away.

Correct about it being on his second stint with the Mets.

But it was actually a good financial decision to defer that money for so long. They will make more money in the long run off that initial money saved than what they will end up paying him.

[CentralMassHokie]

It pains me to say, but in 2006 or 07, we might be adding Jason Varitek's name to this list, when he's getting paid $10m to be a part-time DH and put up a .700 OPS.

[JeeberD]

Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell?

[Bomber]

Originally Posted by CentralMassHokie

It pains me to say, but in 2006 or 07, we might be adding Jason Varitek's name to this list, when he's getting paid $10m to be a part-time DH and put up a .700 OPS.

Do you have any links to articles showing when catchers tend to decline?

[SackAttack]

Around the age of 30 or 31, IIRC...which, not so coincidentally, is how old Varitek is, I believe.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by lynchjm24

He was awesome at Wichita State .

His stuff was absolutely insane then. And, unlike another Dodgers failed draftee, Bill Bene, he could pitch. I will never, ever forgive Lasorda and the Dodgers brass for fucking up his arms.

[daedalus]

Originally Posted by Bomber

Do you have any links to articles showing when catchers tend to decline?

A lot of the researches on decline of catchers seems to focus more on games than age. I don't remember the numbers off-hand but, if I recall correctly, the Rangers did not to re-ink Rodriguez long term because, according to studies, he was supposed to have started his decline by his last year there.

[TroyF]

And to think the Rockies signed Hampton and Neagle in the same year. . .

[CentralMassHokie]

Here's a good study one of the smarter SoSH posters did:

http://p086.ezboard.com/fsonsofsamho...ID=14585.topic

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JeeberD

Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell?

Ouch. I had almost forgotten about those. Drabek looked good on paper but, man...

SI