In this video, I give my pick for the worst MLB free agent each team in Major League Baseball has ever signed. Thumbnail- x.com/lineardesigns_?s=21&t=G...
I will forever say Josh Hamilton is a worse signing for the Angels than Pujols. Pujols actually put up some decent value in the first half of that contract and it brought veteran leadership to the clubhouse (Mike Trout still credits Pujols for a lot of his success and his ability to lead) and intrigue as Pujols was chasing history. Hamilton was released after 1 subpar season and was being paid by the Angels to play for their division rival (and play better than when he was with the Angels). Rendon will be worse than both though.
I always felt cheated, if that's the right word with Josh Hamilton. He was the guy who beat his addictions and came back and had that amazing home run derby, in New York, in Yankee Stadium, in front of a crowd who no matter what their affiliation was, cheered for him like he was the reincarnation of Babe Ruth. But then when I learned how abusive he was to his family that whole time, it really left a bad taste in my mouth. Sometimes great talent is wasted on the wrong people.
@@PHXNKVHXLIC who's crying just pointing out mistakes....take the first team he picks (Angels) -- HOW is Pujols a worse signing than Mo Vaughn was ...?
I gotta go with the Carl Crawford contract being worse for Boston. Especially in hindsight, giving him that deal instead of resigning Beltre at a way lesser cost is likely Epstein's worst decision as GM of the Red Sox. Not to mention Crawford was insanely redundant on the team with Ellsbury already on the team.
Heyward did what he needed to do with the Cubs. Didn't put up massive numbers, but he was a calming presence in the clubhouse and did everything he could to improve the Chicago community as well
I don’t think the Bauer contract was that bad. He pitched very well in the half season he played. They did have to pay him to the end of that year until the suspension was handed out but didn’t have to pay him the next year since he was on the restricted list. The thing that screwed them was having to pay for the last year since mlb reverted the suspension.
Jason Schmidt never pitched an inning for the Dodgers. And another category for the worst signing they never made was for Tim Raines, which they tried to explain away by saying they didn’t need him Because they already had Kenny Landreaux.
@StevenBlaugh-zt8gn Schmidt pitched 43.1 innings for the Dodgers. Pedro Gurrero was the primary LF in 1987 and hit .338 with 27 HR. Worst non signing was Vladimir Gurerro in 2004.
Jeff Suppan is the right answer for the brewers, but Jeffery Hammonds was another shocker. Guy spent most of his career on a trainers bench and the one good year he had was with the Rockies
Strasburg’s such a heartbreaking case. He hasn’t lived up to it at all, through no fault of his own, but I think if you told Washington fans they could avoid this contract by giving up their World Series, I think they’d sign him to that deal with no hesitation. Also thank you for not picking the low hanging fruit and saying Kris Bryant, lots of people pick Bryant just because of recency bias and it’s lazy
Chan Ho Park is a famous name in my family. We're all Cardinal fans. I watched Park give up two grand slams in the same inning _to the same batter_ -- Fernando Tatis (Sr.). Tatis set two records that day that will probably never be broken (number of GS in one inning, number of RBI in one inning).
Great content, great editing, great audio. I see your channel growing quite a bit man. Very nicely done. Sox fan here as well - South Shore represent \m/
Ellsbury was bad, but it's hard to top Carl Pavano in terms of worst free-agent signings for the Yankees. $40 million over four years-- and only played in 26 games.
For the Royals, Juan Gonzalez back in 2004. It was only $4 million, but I do remember how much optimism there was after their 2003 season. Only got 5 homers and 17 rbis in 33 games from him
Great list! Man I forgot about a lot of these deals. One could probably nitpick some of the entries, but it's interesting to note how many of these deals turned sour because of the player's poor attitude.
Ooo, have to go with Pat Burrell for the Rays there. Not only was he terrible since he couldn't handle playing DH, it came in the middle of the Rays' first real playoff window where it would have been REALLY nice to capitalize on their 08 success with how many core guys were still there for 09/10. Instead, we got a total flop that constricted the Rays' options with other moves both financially and roster space-wise. I'd say he also reinforced some bad habits with the Rays as far as not signing bats and particularly defensively challenged DH types to decent FA contracts with how bad his performance was. I don't think it's crazy to say that the Pat Burrell dud helped prevent the Rays from signing Nelson Cruz back when he was actually good, instead of trading for him right when he went into decline, for instance.
Swindell signed out of college with a suspect arm. At the University of Texas, especially in his junior year in 1986, Gregg threw a lot of sliders. (The head coach of the baseball team was the person who told which pitches Swindell had to throw.) He was envisioned to be the left-handed version of Roger Clemens. And it didn't materialize.
I can buy the Pujols one being marginally worse if not for any other reason than because giving a guy entering his age-32 season an enormous 10-year contract is near guaranteed to start being a waste of money at some point, no matter who the player is. Obviously I'm sure they knew that, I guess it's a compromise you have to make if you're looking to sign a first-ballot hall of famer, but still. They were definitely both very questionable from the beginning though. The yearly salary was nearly identical.
Great vid. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't realize this was in alphabetical order by team name until about 18 minutes in. Also...LaRoche was bad for the ChiSox, but holy shit...Grandal...and good lord, Andrew Benintendi getting the biggest Sox FA contract ever, only to play like he was out there playing T-ball.
Chan ho park was the best of a bad pitchers free agent market. Point of interest, radio host and news columnist Randy Galloway referred to any Ranger loss that was caused by Chan Ho as a “Ho hole “.
As a Rockies fan since David Nied was drafted 1st in the Expansion Draft of 1992...pretty much any FA they signed and especially as a pitcher (oh he's a groundball inducing pitcher he'll do well here at Coors where sinkers sink as well as helium balloons.)
I am surprised Pat Burrell wasn't the Rays worst free agent because he was immediately who came to mind for me. For someone nicknamed "Pat the BAT" and was said to be the Rays appointed designated hitter, he stunk. Was an unproductive bat in the lineup, and to that point was scrapping his career low marks in almost every offensive category. This was in 2009, no less, when the Rays were trying to defend the AL pennant. Finally they released him, but then he went on to be a star hitter with the Giants. The Rays really blew that signing.
We should almost have a "A" list and a "B" list....The "B" could people like Vernon Wells, Matt Joyce, Shane Victerino, Raul Ibanez, Justin Upton, Andres Galleraga......guys that were really so done you could cut them with a fork!
Giants fan and SF Bay Area native here. Rowand had a decent first season with them but the scutlebutt in town was that he was basically clubhouse deodorant after Barry Bonds, whose final years felt like a dreary march towards a PED-tainted quest to be the home run king. The morale on those mid-aughties Giants teams was bad. I would say the Barry Zito deal was much worse. They totally outbid the Mets by, if I recall, a large amount of money for a guy who was never dominating to begin with. Yes, he redeemed himself in 2012 but he had so many bad blowup starts on the balance of that awful contract.
If Ohtani when he is able to pitch again can't get back to pre injury form that's not a bad take. If he is only the hitter they could have spent half that money and nearly got the same bat.
Javy Baez's contract with the Tigers is going to be their worst. Kris Bryant's with the Rockies may be the next. It's a real shame the Cubs didn't trade all those guys for huge ransoms the year prior though. Crazy how they could have had 4 players on that team as the worst contracts signed by different teams
The Braves worst signing was Derek Lowe. He was a two-time All-Star, had garnered a third-place finish in Cy Young votes earlier in his career, and was a World Series champion in 2004. The Braves had very high hopes of him playing at that pace. Almost instantly, the Atlanta Braves organization started to regret this signing. Lowe gave up the second-most hits per 9 innings in his career, his highest WHIP of his career, while posting an ERA that was 12% below average (4.67).For the next two years, Lowe never had an ERA+ at or above the league average, and his WHIP and strikeout to walk ratio continued to be an issue. After posting a 76 ERA+ in 2011, the Braves had enough and ended up trading him to Cleveland to help mitigate some of the payroll damage.
They recouped substantial amount of the money given to Pujjols for the tv contract they were awarded when they signed him.. and for the number of tickets they sold.. remember he achieved some serious records in angels uniform.. and for the record, he was better than average duing the first 4 years of his contract
I agree, Madison Bumgarner should be considered the worst for the Diamondbacks. Signed in late 2019, only two full seasons (2021 and 2022) plus the COVID-shortened 2020 season and four games in 2023 before being released. www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bumgama01.shtml#2020-2023-sum:pitching_standard
ryan howard’s extension is probably the worst phillies contract imo, injuries really sapped him of his power and made him a shell of his former self after 2011. i used to see him from time to time at whole foods lol but that was during those dark years
Trevor Bauer was proven innocent of those false allegations and his time in the MLB was screwed because of it. So how can it really be the worst if he didn’t have a chance to fulfill it because of false allegations?
But at the time Suppan signed with our Crew it was the largest in franchise history. Add in what it symbolized for a franchise with a wealth of young talent coming in, it really hurt. Great guy though.
You're wrong about Trevor Bauer. The worst contract for the Dodgers will always be Andruw Jones. The Dodgers signed a $36.2 million dollar, 2-year contract with him in 2007. That would be a $53.7 million dollar contract in 2023. He showed up in 2008 out of shape and couldn't hit above .200. He injured himself in May but came back in July and still under performed. He was eventually benched, then released at the end of the season. His entire tenure with the Dodgers, he underperformed and had a poor attitude. Afterwards, he blamed the fans for not supporting him. As to TB, while the Dodgers technically lost a bit more, the signing itself was a good one. He was performing up until his suspension. And, based on what we know, that suspension was not a good one and I'm still baffled why the Dodgers released him. Especially since they needed pitching.
Oh of course the initial signing was great! However, they ended up paying all that $ for pretty much 17 starts 😂 I definitely understand the Andruw Jones contract though.
Dexter Folwer not only sucked in his final two seasons where Cardinals fans could have see the audition of Adolis Garcia or Randy Arozarena instead, but alas the big brass with the big brains that gets paid millions to make these choices decided trading Sandy Alcantara and Zac Gallen to get Ozuna and singing Fowler was the better idea? They say hindsight is 20/20? But for them im sure they dont even see it right... Been a Cardinals fan for 33 years... this is the first year im Boycotting over trading away any player with personality to go be an all star for another team over "philosophical differences"
Phillies phan here. We all HATED Arietta. Feared when he pitched. He was god awful, a HR machine. When he left we legit threw a party in my family and celebrated it.
I can't think of a single Cubs fan I know that wouldn't put Meltdown Bradley as the worst signing ever. While J-Hey was mostly MIA at the plate, his gold glove and leadership helped steer the Cubs to their 2016 championship. By comparison, Bradley did squat. Cheers....
Ryan Howard 2012-2016; a bust in every possible way. It’s unwise to offer any major contract to a player older than 28, but baseball’s archaic way of doing business won’t die easily.
Yes, there aren't a lot of big free agent signings for the Cleveland franchise but I don't think many fans viewed Nick Swisher as that bad a signing. He brought a lot of energy to the team and the fans liked his hustle. His Ohio/Ohio State ties made him kind of a "hometown hero". He had some big hits for some competitive teams. The injuries did make him overpriced, so I do get the choice. Does anybody remember the Wayne Garland deal?
Your response when I didn't like you giving the Padres an A+ for trading for Soto: "I disagree with you that there wasn’t skill involved. So you’re going to tell me that those players they traded didn’t require any scouting or player development? When you have a chance to trade for a once in a generation type of player, you do it. You build up for your farm so those players can either help your own organization, or to use as assets. It’s good to go against the grain sometimes, but this ain’t it." Update?
Cardinals Brett Cecil contract was terrible. 30 million 4 years no trade clause. played 2 years, one of which he had a 6.89 era. the next two years he was hurt, and then was healing and then got hurt again. then retired.
Pujols over Hamilton or what seemingly may end up being the worst, Rendon? not sure about that one. How many tickets did albert sell chasing 500, 600, or hit 3000?
Don't know if Rusney Castillo of the Boston Red Sox would be considered a "free agent", but his seven-year, $72.5 million contract just to play in the minor leagues is pretty bad
I'd say this one was worse than Sandoval. Castillo only had 73 at-bats in the Majors and was then stashed in Pawtucket so his contract wouldn't count against the luxury tax. Sandoval at least played most of a season.
Phillies Danny Tartabull fouled a ball off his foot and never played again he just played in 3 games in 97. Gregg Jeffries also a runner up for the Phillies they signed him he couldn't find a position to play here i think was traded to Kansas City and played better .
As a Reds fan I completely forgot about Eric Milton but I would put Mike Moustakas up there with him. I don’t even think he played a full year on the 4yr/65 million contract. To my knowledge he didn’t even hit .260 and or even hit 15 homers.
@@rhyde well, yeah, that's true, but miami the city is not a small market, it's just the team runs like it is. I've always been under the assumption that saying a team is small market was talking about the market they reside in
Pirates you mean. He had been in three prior organizations before the Pirates: the Expos drafted him in 2000, traded him to the Mets in March 2002 for Lou Collier and then the Mets traded him away at the 2002 deadline to the Padres. Pirates got him and Ollie Perez (lol) from the Padres for Brian Giles. There’s a few weird early 2000s “throw in” pieces for the Mets that blew up years later. Nelson Cruz was in their system and Jose Bautista was a Met for a few minutes at the 2004 deadline before being traded in the Kris Benson deal
