Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and the 10 biggest contracts ever

Now that Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have found new homes, MLB is even more cluttered with huge mega-contracts. Let’s look at them.

Three. That’s the number of players who signed deals worth at least $250 million during the last eight days.

Two. That’s the number of players who had ever signed such deals entering this year.

A player signing a deal worth more than $200 million has been a pretty rare sight, yet we had three recently in the form of Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, and Nolan Arenado. As a result, it’s time to take a look back at some of the biggest baseball contracts ever.

10: Joey Votto. Cincinnati Reds. $225,000,000

On April 2nd, The Reds signed Joey Votto to an insane extension. The then 28-year-old Votto still had two years left on his contract but the Reds wanted to make sure that they kept their star first baseman for years to come.

They agreed to a 10-year extension worth $225,000,000. Once his two remaining years were completed, his new contract was to last from 2014 until 2023. The extension included an option for 2024. As a result, once the extension was agreed on, Votto had up to 13 years left.

So far the extension has worked very well for the Reds. Votto missed more than half of his first season but averaged 155 games each of the next four. He’s also hit more than .300 three times and combined for more than 100 home runs during the first half of the contract.

He still has five years left on his contract, with each being worth $25,000,000.