The five worst MLB players include three very expensive first basemen, a terrible shortstop, and a pitcher allowing home runs at a historic rate.
A list of the five worst players in baseball is relative. We all know that any player in Major League Baseball is one of the best players on the planet. They have reached the pinnacle of their sport and should be commended for it. That being said, relative to the other players in the major leagues in 2016, some players have been just flat out terrible this year and have cost their teams dearly on the field and in the pocketbook.
When it comes to creating a list of the worst players in baseball, there are a few things to consider. The most important thing is production on the field. If a hitter is a black hole in the lineup, a sieve in the field, or gets knocked around the ballpark on the mound, he is actively hurting his team and making it more difficult for his team to win games.
This ties in with the second thing to consider, which is playing time. A third string catcher who gets a few at-bats a week won’t get the playing time to really hurt his team. It takes the everyday player who is having a terrible season to really torpedo a team’s chances. The final consideration is salary. A player making the minimum can be easily replaced if he plays poorly, but someone making $20 million will continue to get chance after chance to turn his season around.
This list of the worst players in baseball will be players who hurt teams in all three ways: poor play, plenty of playing time, and costly salaries. This list includes players at premier hitting positions who haven’t produced, a guy who was very good just two seasons ago, and a pitcher who can’t stop giving up dingers.
Next: The Worst Contract Ever?
Ryan Howard, 1B, Philadelphia Phillies
.160/.219/.376, 233 PA, 19 R, 14 HR, 30 RBI, -1.4 WAR (Fangraphs)
$25 million salary
Even though he doesn’t have the fewest Wins Above Replacement (WAR, per Fangraphs) of any player in baseball, because of his hefty price tag and the likelihood that he’ll continue to take up space on the Phillies’ roster, Ryan Howard gets the title of Worst Player in Baseball.
There are so many ways in which Ryan Howard is the worst player in baseball. His hitting has been atrocious. For players with at least 200 plate appearances, Howard ranks second-to-last in batting average and on-base percentage and 13th from the bottom in OPS. He has the 11th-worst strikeout rate. His defense is bad and has been below average in every full season of his career. He’s a sloth on the bases.
On top of all that, Howard is making $25 million this season. He’s in the final year of a 5-year, $125 million contract extension that he signed before the 2012 season. In that time, he’s been below average every year and below replacement level in four of those five seasons. He’s currently having the worst season of his career.
Then there are a couple of bizarre statistical anomalies Howard has going against him. Ryan Howard has 14 home runs this year, but has scored just 19 times. Eleven of his 14 home runs have been solo shots. In the history of baseball, the fewest runs scored for a player with 14 home runs is 31, by Scott Brosius in 1994. Howard has scored 12 fewer runs than that.
Howard’s 14 home runs have come with 31 RBI on the season. Other than Howard, the fewest RBI for a player with 14 home runs in a season are the 38 that Andrew McCutchen currently has. Not only has Howard been awful in a traditional way, he’s also been awful in unusual, quirky ways.
Next: The Guy Whose Season May Be Over
Prince Fielder, DH, Texas Rangers
.212/.292/.334, 370 PA, 29 R, 8 HR, 44 RBI, -1.8 WAR
$24 million salary
Prince Fielder currently has the lowest WAR in baseball, but I don’t rank him as the worst player in baseball because his season is likely over and he’s locked in at -1.8 WAR. Ryan Howard is still playing for the Phillies and is on pace to drop below Fielder in WAR by the end of the season.
The last season in which Prince Fielder was an above-average player was 2013. That was his last year with the Detroit Tigers and it was his fifth season in a row with at least 2.0 WAR. Prior to the 2014 season, Fielder was traded to the Texas Rangers, just as his salary would be kicked up to $24 million per year through the 2020 season.
Fielder’s first season with the Rangers was a lost one because of injury problems. He only played in 42 games and slugged .360. He bounced back last year to hit .305/.378/.463 and, more importantly, played in 158 games. That great comeback season is a memory now. Fielder hit .212/.292/.334 in 89 games but is now on the DL with a herniated disk in his neck. There’s a good chance that he’ll miss the rest of the season.
With four more years and $96 million left on his contract, Fielder could challenge Ryan Howard for worst contract in baseball history if he doesn’t recover from his neck injury and return to some semblance of a major league player.
Next: Another Bad But Expensive First Baseman
Mark Teixeira, 1B, New York Yankees
.185/.266/.315, 2559PA, 23 R, 8 HR, 22 RBI, -1.3 WAR
$22.5 million salary
Mark Teixeira has been nearly as bad as Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder this year and is almost as costly. The good news for the Yankees is that this is the final year on Teixeira’s long-term contract.
Over the first 10 years of his career, Mark Teixeira averaged 4.2 WAR per season while hitting .279/.369/.527, with 94 R, 34 HR and 110 RBI per year. Then came the injury-shortened 2013 season in which he hit .151/.270/.340. He has similar numbers this year, but has played in four times as many games, so he’s hurt the Yankees even more than he did that year.
The 2016 season is the third in the last four years in which Teixeira has been a below average player. The one bright spot was last year’s .255/.357/.548 season. This year, he’s just not hitting much at all and spent three weeks on the DL in June with a knee injury, while also dealing with a lingering neck injury. He came off the DL on June 25th and has hit for some power since then (.446 slugging), but continues to struggle with average (.200) and on-base percentage (.254).
As the Yankees fall behind the pack in the AL East (7 GB) and the second Wild Card spot (5.5 GB), it will be interesting to see how much Teixeira plays down the stretch. Of course, it’s not like the Yankees have a healthy, up-and-coming first baseman who is being blocked by Teixeira. Greg Bird is out for the year and their AAA first baseman is 29-year-old Ike Davis.
Next: The Terrible Shortstop
Erick Aybar, SS, Atlanta Braves
.210/.264/.265, 283 PA, 20 R, 1 HR, 16 RBI, 2 SB, -1.7 WAR
$8.5 million salary
Erick Aybar and Alexei Ramirez have been almost equally awful this season, but Aybar is being paid $4.5 million more than Ramirez, so he gets the spot on this list. With the season Aybar is having, it’s hard to imagine that he was a four-win player just two seasons ago when he hit .278/.321/.379 with good defense for a Los Angeles Angels team that won 98 games in 2014. Both Aybar and the Angels have fallen far since then.
Aybar came into this season a career .276/.315/.378 hitter, but has seen all of those rates plummet. Aybar’s slugging percentage has been particularly awful at .265 and is the worst in baseball for players with 200 or more plate appearances. Just 12 of his 54 hits have gone for extra bases and 11 of those 12 hits have been doubles. To round out an all-around terrible year, Aybar has been thrown out stealing in four of his six attempts.
Taking a closer look reveals that Aybar has been particularly bad on the road this season. In road games, Aybar has hit .164/.224/.213. Pitchers in Major League Baseball this year have hit .132/.162/.168. Aybar usually bats eighth, so in road games when he’s in the eighth slot, it’s like the Atlanta Braves have two pitchers in a row hitting at the bottom of their lineup. The good news for Braves fans (both of them) is that Aybar is a free agent at the end of the year and the Braves have a couple of very good shortstop prospects in the minor leagues in Dansby Swanson and Ozzie Albies.
Next: The Worst Pitcher in Baseball
Chris Young, SP, Kansas City Royals
2-4, 6.61 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 64 IP, -1.5 WAR
$4.25 million salary
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Chris Young has spent his baseball career defying advanced statistical analysis by regularly posting a better ERA than his peripheral stats would expect. He has a career ERA of 3.84 but a career FIP of 4.57. He has allowed a .248 BABIP in his career, which is by far the best BABIP for any pitcher who has thrown 1,000 or more innings since 2004, when Young began his MLB career. Ted Lilly is second, with a .264 BABIP. During this stretch, Young’s left on base percentage is eighth out of 127 qualifying pitchers and his HR/FB percentage is 14th.
For years, Young has been able to induce a low BABIP, allow fewer home runs per fly ball, and strand a higher number of runners than the average pitcher. He was particularly good at these three things in 2014, when he won 12 games with a 3.65 ERA for the Mariners, and 2015, when he won 11 games with a 3.06 ERA for the Royals.
Next: Ranking best MLB fanbases
This season, Young has continued to defy the BABIP gods with a .276 mark, 21 points below the league average, and he has an LOB% of 84.6 percent, which is 11.5 percent better than league average, but his HR/FB rate has gone through the roof. Young has allowed an incredible 26 home runs in 64 innings. After 11 years of limiting home runs on fly balls, he’s seen his HR/FB rate jump to 25.2 percent. One out of every four fly balls he’s allowed has gone over the fence. It’s been a truly awful year for Chris Young.