Every MLB Team's Dumbest Contract Ever 

It's kind of weird to include one year contracts on this list. Those type of deals are only made when there is a mutual acknowledgement that there is a high level of risk so it doesn't really make sense to refer to those as "dumb" in my opinion

1 year / 720k barely counts as a bad contract even if he didn't work out... That's barely over league min 11:31

"Barry Zito never posted an ERA below 4 in his time in the Bay Area" Oakland is in the Bay Area.

Chone Figgins signing with the Mariners for 4 years & 36 million before the 2010 season. He did absolutely nothing for them for 3 seasons & was released in the final year of the contract.

1 year contracts? I'm sure Toronto had a worse signing sometime than a 1 year 5.5 million.

Anthony Rendon is honestly the Ben Simmons of baseball

Honorable mention to Wander Franco for the Rays. Not sure if his designation means they don't have to pay him but certainly hope they don't.

(Cubs fan) It was interesting reading David Ross’s book. J-Hey had a lot of off the field leadership that the team really respected, especially in 2016. On the field may not have gone well, but he still showed up to practice and gave it his all, he upgraded teammates hotel rooms, gave the Game 7 speech. It takes a lot to give that much when your stats are struggling.

Dodgers gave Jason Schmidt 3 years and 47 million, and he immediately got injured and only pitched about 40 innings.

I agree with most of the examples, but I have to say that the Phillies signing Jake Arietta for three years/75 million was far more detrimental than resigning Ryan Howard when/how much they did...

Can't argue with the disastrous contract the Reds gave Homer Bailey. The silver metal goes to Mike Moustakas. $64million for a three year negative WAR, and then DFA. A small market team can't afford contracts like Bailey and Moustakas.

Are we afraid to say that Wander Franco extension is probably a bit worse than grant Balfour?

The White Sox signed Jamie Navarro to a 4yr/$20 million deal in 1997. His best ERA in a season during that contract was 5.79. Makes John Jay look like a lottery ticket. The Pittsburg Pirates had Derek Bell sign a 2yr/$9.75 million deal in 2001, only to OPS+ 48 and introduce to the world Operation Shutdown.

What about Robinson Cano for the Mariners and Rusney Castillo for the Red Sox?

I didn’t even have to click the video to know it was Rendon’s contract😂😭😂

Aaron Hick's extension with the Yankees was mind boggling. 7 year 70 million. Always injury prone. Flashy with the glove but inconsistent bat. A switch hitter who wasn't a good hitter from either side. Make it make sense.

What about the Wander Franco extension? (if that even counts)

Great vid concept

Our worst contract is for a single year, at 5.5 million. (Jays) Honestly, I think that's an amazing track record.

The most disappointing one for me was Albert Belle with the O’s.

One of the worst was the Carlos Silva's contract with Seattle Mariners 4 years and 48 millions He lasted 2 years in Seattle with 5-18 and 6,81 ERA, 1,84 SO/W (in 2005 with Minnesota he had 7,89 SO/W and all sabermetrics thought that he was one of the reason because sabermetrics existed) Silva and probably his agent were de winners Carlos Silva is the owner of Marinos de Anzoátegui (Anzoategui Mariners) a professional basketball team in Venezuela, if I don't make mistake. And he is the owner of Rutaca, a venezuelan airline. You do the maths

For the Mariners I would have gone with Pokey Reese who they signed in 2005 after he won a World Series in 2004. Reese got injured before the season even started and he would not play a single game not only that season but would never play in the MLB again.

I'm still happy that Zito redeemed himself and helped the Giants win the title in 2012.

Kirby Yates is my most common fuck up on immaculate grid because I always misremember him playing with the blue jays

For Seattle... What about Chone Figgins...what a disaster that endeavor was

Picking La Stella when the M’s have given big money to players like Chone Figgins is wild.

I was expecting Andruw Jones with the Dodgers not Scott Kazmir.

If your worst deal is 1 year, 5.5 million then you"re doing fine.

I never understood Ellsbury going to the Yanks, they already had the same player in Brett Gardner.

Recency bias is right! the Jays worst contract is FAR AND AWAY Vernon Wells but thank you Angels for taking the brunt of that one. In a distant second, Alex Rios $69(nice) million guaranteed, waived a little over a year later.

The one good thing about the Twins signing Nolasco was that it started Chris Cotillo's reporting career. Dude broke the signing while a high schooler.

Yeah 1 year deals don’t make sense to add as they aren’t really franchise impacting like any multi year deals are

You can tell even just from this video that Howard changed after his injury

Kendrys Morales is maybe a better pick for the Jays I think - but fun video overall!!

as a white sox fan how is adam dunn, andrew bentiendi, or john danks not on here those are the 3 biggest deals ever for the team....and they never earned the money

For Oakland, I think the contract A's gave 11M to Trevor Rosenthal is equally dumb as Butler contract because he literally pitched not even a single ball including during spring training

Idk one year contracts are usually players looking to be traded mid way so it’s not even a risky type contract because usually the team sucks

In fairness to the Nationals, disability a insurance policy would have probably cost almost 100% of the policy max, because there was almost a 100% chance the Nationals would collect on the policy.

How is The Mets Not Bobby Bonnila .... Aren't They STILL Paying Him ??

21:48 he made all 126m in the 2012 playoffs

blue jays should be Vernon Wells

Billy Bean told the fans they didn’t have the money to sign Donaldson who would have had enough serviceability at the end of 2015 to get a new contract before his 6 years team control was up. He could have signed that fall even if he was granted arbitration for $3.5 million for 5 years. Instead they traded him and signed Tuna Casserole to 3 years $30 million. Tuna Casserole played 1.5 seasons with 19 extra base hits and 39 hit into double plays. Donaldson won the League’s MVP.

The Blue Jays one didn't make any sense that is a one-year contract for 5 million dollars that is considered a great contract nowadays what are you talking about lol you get an invisible thumbs down just for adding that and $720k 1 year contract lol cmon bro

La Stella huh? Thought Chone Figgins was the worst contract😂

Ok, The Pirates should honestly be Gregory Polanco's extension

2:55 back to back key players for the braves Panda won some games for the braves early and then was the Jorge Soler trade. Alex Anthopolous magic

I thought we were gonna get Chone Figgins for the mariners

9:59 this man dropped the easiest homer catch of his life!

Blue jays should be Tanner Roark - 2year/ 24 mil to produce 6.75 ERA in 54 2/3 innings before being released

I would hardly call one year contracts bad deals. Or 5 year 10m. thats literally pocket change

You went with Tommy LaStella instead of Evan White? The always hurt AAA player that was salary dumped this offseason? Bad choice

How dare you do my boy Kazmir like that

I forgot madbum was on the Dbacks

Howard got the extension because of jersey sales. He was a key part of the 08 WS team and the front office knew that a lot of that team would be wearing jerseys from other teams already or very soon.

I almost forgot about Ellsbury….thanks

This list could be renamed "a bunch of guys that almost went to Toronto, but ended up featuring in a MTC video on bad contracts instead". It's great!

I'd argue the Kevin Brown or Trevor Bauer contracts with the Dodgers were worse than the Kazmir one was.

Look at Ryan Howard's 5 seasons before he got hurt. Ridiculous numbers he put up, so he deserved that contract, but unfortunately, he got hurt. My opion is if he doesn't get hurt he probably reaches 400 maybe 500 homeruns and possibly gets into the hall of fame.

As an Astros fan, the worst contract is Rafael Montero as of now

Anthony Rendon aka Albert Haynesworth

The biggest problem with this video is it acts as if MLB history begins in 2010. Where are the Rockies' deals with Mike Hampton or Denny Neagle. Christ, the then Indians 10-year deal with Wayne Garland is still easily the worst in the franchise's history. Baseball can make all the rules changes it wants. But as long as people covering the game have no sense of the game's history, baseball will continue to lose viewers

It’s odd, Zito was overpaid sure, but here in SF he retired a legend and he will always be one to us.

You guys are wrong about Pablo Sandoval being the worst Boston Red Sox contract because that honor is Carl Crawford's.

Definitely nailed it with the Brewers pick. Hammonds also had trouble staying on the field, which continued in Milwaukee ... before he was ultimately released. They were opening Miller Park that season and felt they needed to pay someone, but holding onto the money until 2002 would have been much better than spending just to spend

20:55 oh my God that pitch was NASTY 😭

I don’t even have to watch this to know my cubs, who have had some really bad contracts, but giving Jhay 186m has to be the worst, in fact one of the worst 100m contracts ever.

This is more like “worst aging” contracts

Detroit not being Baez says a lot about Detroit.

I think all RedSox fans agree that Pablo Sandoval was our worst contract ever

Rusney Castillo they essentially paid not to play. Still makes me mad to this day

I agree that there was no reason for a prospect to get a contract extension without performing overwhelmingly well like Singleton, but… come on, at least tell me Martin Maldonado was a close second

Baseball amazes me how they will give some players such massive bloated contracts that pay players well into their late 30's and even 40's. Signing a 30 or 31yr old to a 10 year 300+m contract is so short sighted. It seems just about everytime the player is past or near past his prime and the team under performs. Now teams are deferring money for years and decades for players. It sucks being a small market fan in baseball. They need a salary cap

I hate when ppl give advanced stats instead of the tradiional ones

Wei yin Chen is thanking his lucky stars that he wasn't included on this list

Blue jays got off easy here

I would say the White Sox had worse contracts than Jon Jay......probably Yasmani Grandal's. He only had one good offensive season and he was paid a lot more.

Melvin uptown ended up getting good again towards the end … went 20/20

His last name sounds like Ball Four and he's a pitcher

As a white Sox fan, it’s Moncada. Dude has no heart and we lost Chris Sale for that bum

Manny Ramirez with the Dodgers stands out more in my mind than Kazmir.

The irony of seeing Sandoval's picture with a Dunkin' donuts logo behind him. 🤷🤷

Disagree vehemetly that Daniel Hudson was the worst Pirates contract ever. He wasn't great by any means, but his career did rebound with the Dodgers a few years later. Also he was instrumental in being the trade piece that brought in Coery Dickerson. He didn't shift us into being contenders again, but he was our best batter for two seasons. The worst contract by a country mile is Jason Kendall because the poor guy got hurt and basically scared the organization away from signing anyone ever again. We only broke his record for largest contract ever when they resigned Hayes and Reynolds to extremely team-friendly deals they can and will flip in a couple seasons.

Did AI make this video how can you have 1 year deals on here

Rangers think Park was the worst deal.... Here I thought it might have been Soo Choo's contract or A-Roid's $250 million Fed-Ex to NYY deal.

Knew that you would highlight Barry Zito from the Giants. Sorry, but hard disagree. SF literally has one less flag flying without Barry Zito. He stunk for most of the contract, but finished on the highest note possible (post-season hero), so all is forgiven in San Francisco. We good with Zito. Worst Giants contracts were: Mark DeRosa, or the recent Tommy LaStella deal. Not nearly as much money, but totally useless players for their duration with the club. The Cain extension didn't work out (but he was a franchise legend), and also it could be argued that Will Clark should've been extended over Robby Thompson (took a Randy Johnson fastball to the face and was never the same, you can't plan for that). But sorry, Barry Zito was essential to helping the Giants a championship in 2012 so he will always be considered a "good Giant." Just investigate the phenomenon of: Hashtag Rally Zito, that started as a joke and ended up with Zito reeling off 7 straight wins to end the regular season (15 wins in total!), and then dominating in the playoffs. Including laying down an iconic bunt that essentially won a World Series game. Overall- entertaining piece, thanks for posting!

This is why I traded Homer Bailey in mlb the show lol

Could make a video alone on the dumb contracts the Angels have made.

Ryan Howard's downhill spiral was because of his injury.... wasn't a dumb contract in most people's eyes

We all know who the rays worst contract REALLY IS.

1:00 i HATED EVERYTHING about Ellsbury's contract. too long a commitment and his injury history was a major concern for me

Scott Kazmir went to the same high school as my sister in law, though they never personally met. Not many players make it to the big leagues from my hometown, so I root for them regardless. I was lucky enough to go to high school with a guy who played in the NFL. Not sure if he still plays though.

How is Javy Baez not the Tigers worst contract?

Thank you for calling out Rendon. That contract is a complete ripoff for Anaheim

Rays has to be wander Franco unless they don’t have to pay him his contract to cut him

Wander Franco represents the worst contract the Rays have ever given out. He had talent, but he gave it all away for his inability to keep it in his pants around a minor.

Knew that voice sounded familiar

White Sox Adam Dunn was a terrible contract costing more than John J

The Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles (lol) take the cake

For the Royals, the Alex Gordon contract was worse than Ian Kennedy.

What about Heywards several golden gloves?