The Highly-Paid, Zero Production Team

1B Prince Fielder

Injured; on the 60-day DL for the Texas Rangers

Owed $96 million for 2017-2020 ($24M by Detroit, $72M by Texas)

Fielder’s story is a sad one. He was a top-five finisher in MVP voting in three of his first six full seasons in the big leagues. He led the National League in home runs when he bashed 50 of them in 2007 and led the NL in RBI in 2009, with 141. In seven seasons with his original team, the Milwaukee Brewers, Fielder hit .282/.390/.540. He’s third all-time in home runs by a Milwaukee Brewers player, behind only Ryan Braun and Robin Yount.

The Brewers couldn’t afford to re-sign Fielder after the 2011 season and the big man inked a contract with the Detroit Tigers that would pay him a gazillion dollars over the next nine years (it was actually a nine-year, $214 million dollar contract). He played two seasons in Detroit. According to Baseball-Reference, he was a 4.7 WAR player with the Tigers in 2012, but slumped to a 1.9 WAR season in 2013, when he was 29 years old.

That offseason, the Tigers and Rangers swapped the big-money contracts of Prince Fielder and Ian Kinsler. Fielder went to the Rangers, who took on the $24 million per year that he was owed, minus $6 million paid by the Tigers. Fielder was limited by injuries to 42 games in his first season in Texas, then bounced back a bit to play 158 games in 2015, but was still just short of league average (1.9 WAR). He struggled mightily at the start of 2016 and finally hung up his spikes due to injury just after midseason with a very emotional press conference. Two spinal fusion surgeries pushed him to the sidelines at the age of 32, but he’ll continue to be paid $24 million per year through 2020.

In one of those interesting quirks of baseball fate, Prince and his baseball-playing father, Cecil, finished with the same number of career home runs (319). They were also very close in career RBI, with Prince beating his father 1028 to 1008. Prince also bested Cecil in triples, 10 to 7, and in career salary, $177 million to $47 million.