As we approach the 2019 MLB season, we take a look at an All-Star team’s worth of deals you wouldn’t want your team to be burdened with.
When the Philadelphia Phillies signed Bryce Harper to a 13-year, $330 million contract prior to the 2019 MLB season, the deal was micro-analyzed. But one question went largely unasked: How good will the contract look 13 years from now?
It’s an impossible question to answer because it depends on how well Harper produces, and on how many championships – if any – the Phillies win.
One thing is certain: Not all multi-year deals work out to the expectations of the signing teams. This season, as with every previous season since the dawn of free agency, some players have reported to Spring Training with a lot to prove to the teams that are paying them very big bucks for what thus far has been sub-standard performance.
Which players are finding themselves in that circumstance this spring?
Consider below an All-Star team … of sorts. This one, though, isn’t a team any player wants to be on. It consists of major leaguers who signed multi-season deals that, for various reasons, have turned out to be duds.
Those reasons may have involved injury or performance declines. In some cases, too, the signing teams simply appear to have made major miscalculations about the quality of the player they were signing.
One thing is for sure, this team would combine two very undesirable traits. It would be expensive, and in all likelihood, it would play very poorly in the 2019 MLB season.
Scan through it, and count yourself fortunate if you are a fan of a team that does not contain at least one player on this roster.