24. Texas Rangers
Shin-Soo Choo, 7 years, $130 million, 2014-20. Boras Corp.
When the Rangers were a contending club, the Choo deal made plausible sense. Coming over from Cincinnati following the 2013 season, he started for AL West championship teams in 2015 and 2016, although both of them went out in the first run of post-season play. Choo batted just .208 in is six post-season games, homering once but driving in just three runs.
But Choo never projected to be a transformative figure for the Rangers; he was more of a solid co-star. In Cincinnati and before that in Cleveland, he had hit consistently in the.280s with 15 to 20 home runs. But he had never been an All Star or a Gold Glover.
So when the Rangers turned bad following their 2016 post-season failure, it came as no surprise that Choo’s presence did little to resist the collapse. He has batted in the .260s in both of the past two seasons, he’s hit his 20 home runs and he’s driven in his 60 to 80 runs…but what of it? The team, in need of something Choo cannot provide, has regressed from 95 victories in 2016 to 78 in 2017 and then to 67 in 2018.
While none of this is Choo’s fault, it remains true that as the team’s highest paid player, he is naturally looked to for production. Since arriving in Texas, his average 107 OPS+ reflects what he’s been what he’s always been – a solid complementary player. But he’ll never be what Texas is presently asking him to be, a franchise building block. That’s not in his skill set.