Listing the 25 most overpaid MLB players in 2023, from future Hall of Famers to surprise names

Is your favorite team carrying a player who’s grossly overpaid for the performance he returns?

In these days of $200 million and higher team payrolls, grossly overpaying to get the guy you want isn’t unusual. But it is injurious to the team because the money overpaid to those less-productive players isn’t available to sign actual talent.

Here’s a look at the 25 most overpaid players in MLB in 2023. This ranking is based on each player’s salary, his WAR and the average salary and WAR of all MLB players at the position he plays.

The first step to determine who is overpaid is to group players by position. For the most part, groups consist of each team’s most used player at each position. (The grouping for starting pitchers includes any pitcher who has made at least 15 starts; if a team does not have three such starters, we’ve reached as far down as necessary to get three.)

Players are also included if they are receiving at least $10 million in salary this year regardless of whether they have played. At the catcher position, two players are included for each team unless a team’s primary catcher has caught at least 80 games.

Here are the average salaries and the average WARs at each position. These will become the basis for calculating who’s overpaid and by how much.

Position                                Avg. salary      Avg. WAR

First Base                           $7.64 million       1.049

Second Base                      $4.976 million    1.348

Shortstop                           $9.560 million     1.459

Third Base                          $9.131 million     1.171

Left field                             $5.608 million      0.558

Center field                       $5.047 million      1.628

Right field                         $7.999 million      1.007

Catcher                              $3.359 million      0.624

DH                                       $9.621 million      0.652

Starter                               $9.908 million      1.032

Closer                                $5.604 million      0.821

A word first about the salary and WAR averages. If it seems absurd to you that a team would spend more than $9.5 million on a DH who only produces two-thirds of a WAR, well, you’re probably right. What of it? We’re dealing here with the current average salary and production at each position. It may be stupid, but it’s real.

In simple terms all we’re doing is lumping all the money paid to all the front-liners at each position and redistributing it based on their performance relative to the positional averages.

With that as an explanation, here are the 25 most overpaid players in MLB deep into the 2023 season.

25. Josh Donaldson, third baseman, New York Yankees

It’s been a bad year for Donaldson and also an injury-marred one. He basically missed April and May with a hamstring strain, and last week was sent to the 60-day injury list, this time with a calf strain. As a functional matter, his season – and possibly his tenure with the Yankees – may be over.

Oh, and during those six weeks when he was active Donaldson batted .142 with a paltry .649 OPS. So it’s not like the days of activity, while few, were glorious.

He’s technically signed through 2024, but the team holds an $8 million buyout. That’s substantial, but Donaldson’s age – he’s 38 – plus his recent health history makes it likely that management will at least strongly consider exercising that option.

Donaldson is being paid $21.75 million for that 33-game stretch between early June and mid-July when he was active and healthy. That makes him No. 4 among MLB third baseman behind only Anthony Rendon, Nolan Arenado and Alex Bregman. He’s a few nickels ahead of Manny Machado.

The problem is that while Donaldson is being paid like Manny Machado, he has played – when capable of playing at all – like Jose Miranda. At -0.1, he ranks 33rd among the 38 third basemen in WAR. Based both on his production, on the positional average 1.171 WAR, and on salaries, his onfield value to the Yanks works out to -$772,000.

Throw that negative $772,000 atop the $21.750 million Donaldson is receiving and it works out that he is overpaid by a small matter of $22.53 million.

24. Robbie Ray, starting pitcher, Seattle Mariners

Prior to the 2022 season, Ray agreed to terms with Seattle on a five-year $115 million contract and paid immediate rewards. In his first season, Ray made 32 starts with a 3.71 ERA and was a key factor in Seattle’s rise to a first postseason appearance in more than two decades.

But Ray was awful in the 2022 postseason, being rocked for five earned runs in appearances that lasted just 3.2 innings.

Still Mariners fans entered 2023 expecting Ray to be a rotation anchor, a logical enough assumption given that Seattle was paying him $21 million. That view did not last long.

Ray made his first start – against Cleveland on March 31 – but left just three and one-third innings into it, reporting a flexor strain in his left arm. The Mariners put him on the injured list, and when Ray’s arm didn’t respond to treatment he underwent Tommy John surgery. His expected return date is now sometime next season.

That means all the Mariners will get for their $21 million layout this year is that three inning start, a showing that earned Ray -0.2 WAR. Among the 128 qualified starting pitchers, Ray ranks 15th in salary but 106th in 2023 WAR.

Given the $9.131 million salary and 1.171 WAR of an average starter, Ray’s -0.2 WAR translates to -$1.932 million in value to the Mariners. That means by season’s end Seattle will have overpaid Ray by about $22.932 million relative to his value to the team.

23. Carlos Rodon, starting pitcher, New York Yankees

Rodon was 14-8 with a 2.88 ERA in 31 starts for the San Francisco Giants in 2022. That was sufficient reason for the Yankees this past winter to offer him about $150 million to pitch for them through 2028.

The signing got big headlines among World Series-hungry Yankee fans because Rodon, 30, was seen as the piece that solidified a rotation already including Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino and Nestor Cortes.

But signing pitchers to long-term deals is always dicey for both health and performance reasons. In Rodon’s case, both of those reasons have come into play in 2023.

During spring training, Rodon was diagnosed with a ‘mild’ forearm strain. How mild? Not very, as it turned out; that forearm strain kept Rodon sidelined through June.

And when he finally did debut – on July 7 against the Cubs – Rodon did not look like the fulfillment of Yankee fans’ hopes. He got beat by the Cubs, got roughed up in his next start against the Colorado Rockies, and through four appearances is just 1-3 with a 5.75 ERA.

The Yankees are paying Rodon $22.833 million this season, presumably on the assumption that he will do better than that…and soon. He did look better in his fourth start, lasting into the sixth inning Wednesday against the Mets and beating them 3-1.

But that still leaves Rodon with a 0.0 WAR for the season, which means he is presently being overpaid to the full tune of his $22.833 million salary.

22. Yu Darvish, starting pitcher, San Diego Padres

Having been acquired from the Cubs following the 2020 season, Darvish signed a new six-year, $108 million deal this past winter. Coming off a 16-8 3.10 ERA 2021, he was supposed to anchor a championship-worthy pitching staff.

Nothing has gone to plan this season either for the Padres or Darvish. The team is a disappointing fourth in the NL West, four games below .500, despite one of the game’s highest payrolls.

The failure of the 36-year-old Darvish to live up to the expectations of his contract is a big reason why San Diego has under-performed. In 18 starts he’s 7-7 with a 4.80 ERA, his highest since 2018 and the second highest of his career.

His strikeout totals are way off and his WHIP is much higher than normal.

It all translates to an insignificant +0.2 WAR in a starter class where the average is more than five times that. Add in Darvish’s salary, which at $25 million is seventh highest among 128 qualified starters, and it’s easy to see why he is overpaid.

And the overpayment is substantial. Based on both his personal WAR and the average salaries and WARS for the pitching group, Darvish has ‘earned’ just $1.93 million to date. That means he is overpaid to the tune of $23.070 million.

21. Jose Abreu, first base, Houston Astros

The Astros signed Abreu to a three-year deal over the winter that is paying him $19.5 million this season.

On Chicago’s South Side, where he spent the first nine seasons of his career, Abreu was a standout. A two-time All Star, he won the Rookie of the Year (2014) and Most Valuable Player (2020) awards with the White Sox. With the Crawford boxes in the line of fire, Abreu was expected to have a big 2023 season in Houston.

The opposite has occurred. Abreu approaches the end of July batting just .244 – the worst average of his career – with just eight home runs and 51 RBIs. Both are on pace to be career lows for a full season.

The dissipation of his power is particularly baffling. Abreu is carrying a .350 slugging average, nearly 100 points below the worst slugging season of his career.

So it’s no surprise that he ranks high on the most overpaid list. Here’s why.

The 35 qualified first basemen come with an average $7.64 million salary and generate on average 1.049 WAR. Abreu’s $19.5 million salary is nearly three times the positional average, but his -0.5 WAR is a point and a half below the positional average. In fact only one first baseman, Trey Mancini on Chicago’s North Side, has a worse WAR and Mancini carries a below-average salary.

In fact Abreu’s negative WAR means that beyond not having earned any part of his $19.5 million salary, he (theoretically) owes the Astros about $3.644 million. That means he is overpaid by $23.144 million.

20. Jacob DeGrom, starting pitcher, Texas Rangers

There’s a view among some major League GMs that if you want to win, you have to be willing to take chances. Rangers chief exec Chris Young certainly subscribed to that theory when he signed the highly talented but often-injured Jacob DeGrom to a six-year, $222 million contract this past winter.

Sometimes, of course, you roll the dice and lose. There’s a reason it’s called a gamble.

DeGrom made six solid starts for the Rangers, and he looked good in the first five. He won two, allowed two or fewer earned runs in five of the six, and struck out 45 batters in 30 innings.

Then four innings into his sixth start in late April, DeGrom reported what DeGrom always reports, an arm injury. He underwent surgery for a UCL tear and will not return until late next season at the earliest.

As a result, what the Rangers got from DeGrom in April is all they will get in exchange for the $30 million they’re paying him this year. The thing is, nobody’s especially surprised by that result.

How do we assess what the Rangers did get? DeGrom’s two wins, solid 2.67 ERA and massive strikeout totals translated to 0.7 WAR, which would be an impressive total if this were still late April. But it is only about two-thirds the positional average WAR to this point in the season.

Beyond that, DeGrom’s $30 million salary – more than three times the positional average — suggests he ought to be delivering at the 3 to 3.5 WAR level at this stage of the season rather than where he is, stuck at 0.7.

Pitcher injuries are one of the most common reasons why a player is overpaid, and DeGrom clearly qualifies in that respect. The exact amount works out to $23.243 million.

As bad as that sounds, it could be worse. It could be next season, when DeGrom will earn $40 million from the Rangers and may not pitch at all. If we re-do this list one year from now, DeGrom is a strong candidate to capture the No. 1 spot.

19. Patrick Corbin, starting pitcher, Washington Nationals

The Nationals extended Corbin for $127 million through 2024 in the hot flush of the team’s 2019 World Series victory. Corbin wasn’t exactly a key to winning that Series – he was 2-3 with a 5.79 ERA that post-season – but he’d gone 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA during the regular season and the champs were feeling generous.

Precisely what went wrong after 2019 is hard to pin down but this much is on the record; Corbin led the NL in losses in 2021, again in 2022, and at 6-11 he’s on pace to make it three years running in 2023. Since getting his World Series ring, he’s 23-53 with a 5.63 ERA.

And it’s not like Corbin can blame injuries. He made a full complement of 11 starts in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, 31 in each of the last two years, and he’s on pace to get close to 31 again by October.

His 0.0 WAR is actually reasonable by the standards of his recent seasons; Corbin has been negative in WAR in both 2021 and 2022. But of course for the money the Nats are paying Corbin they should expect him to rack up some big WAR numbers, certainly better than the 1.032 average for the position.

Instead Corbin’s zero WAR works out to $0 value to the Nats. Against his $23.46 million salary for this season, it’s pretty easy to calculate how much he’s being overpaid…$23.46 million.

18. Martin Perez, starting pitcher, Texas Rangers

Yes, two-fifths of the Rangers rotation makes the list of most overpaid.

Playing on a one-year, $4 million ‘prove it’ contract with the Rangers in 2022, Perez went 12-8 with a 2.89 ERA, hit the open market and re-signed with Texas for one more season, this time cashing in to the tune of $19.65 million.

In some respects, Perez has been fortunate. He’s carrying an 8-3 record through 19 starts and his lineup is supporting Perez to the tune of more than seven runs per game.

That run support, however, is masking an ordinary effort on the part of Perez, who sits at a 4.91 ERA through those 19 starts. That’s nearly a half point above his career average.

Among 128 qualified pitchers, Perez ranks 20th in salary but tied for 112th in production with a -0.4 WAR.

Like Abreu, that negative WAR means not only has Perez failed to earn any of his $19.5 million salary, but from a contribution standpoint he’s in debt to the Rangers to the tune of $3.861 million.

Combine that $3.861 million with what he’s actually earning and it works out that Perez is being overpaid in the amount of $23.511 million this season.

17. Joey Votto, first base, Cincinnati Reds

Votto is in the final season of a 10-year deal signed prior to the 2014 campaign which, by year’s end, will have paid him $225 million to play first base for the Reds. He is every bit as much the face of the franchise  today that Barry Larkin was before Votto and Joe Morgan or Johnny Bench before Larkin.

But from the standpoint of on-field contribution, Votto isn’t earning his keep this year.

That keep amounts to $25 million for this season. Votto has spent most of it on the injured list, watching as the young Reds challenged for the NL Central Division title. Activated in mid-June, he’s hitting .181 in 28 games, sharing time with one of the team’s young guns, Spencer Steer.

As noted in the entry regarding Abreu, the average qualified first baseman this season earns $7.64 million and returns 1.049 WAR in value for that pay. In a normal season, 1.049 WAR would be child’s play for Votto, whose value surpassed 3.0 WAR 11 times between 2008 and 2021.

But he slowed up in 2022, and 2023 has been worse, to this point amounting to a barely measurable 0.2 WAR. The words ‘Votto’ and ‘liability’ don’t’ fit well together, but that’s the reality. To this point, Votto is being overpaid in the amount of $23.542 million, or all but about $1.45 million of his $25 million salary.

16. Luis Severino, starting pitcher, New York Yankees

In the final year of a four-year, $40 million contract, Severino was supposed to anchor a staff that would be a key to Yankee hopes to contend in the challenging AL East. The first three seasons had been injury-plagued, Severino making just 19 starts and winning just eight games.

The 2023 season started off just as ominously, with a lat strain that prompted another trip to the injury list just as spring training was concluding. He did not make an appearance until mid-May.

And since arriving, Severino has shown none of the ability that prompted the signing of that four-year contract. In 11 starts to date, he’s 2-4 with a 6.46 ERA, allowing 72 hits in just 54 innings. That currently translates to a -0.9 WAA. Severino, in short, has been worse than replacement-level.

His 1.73 WHIP is among the worst for regularly used pitchers, and certainly for $15 million arms. That’s what the Yankees are paying Severino in this final season of that contract.

As noted earlier, when a player registers a negative WAR, he’s not only wasting his entire salary, he’s also running a performance debt to his team. In the case of Severino, that ‘debt’ runs to $8.687 million. Adding that to the $15 million he is actually receiving, we can calculate that he is being overpaid by $23.867 million.

15. Sean Manaea, starting pitcher, San Francisco Giants

There is something attractive in the profile of left-hander Sean Manaea. Perhaps it’s the no-hitter he threw a few years back, or a couple of good early career seasons with Oakland, when he was arguably the ace of the A’s staff.

By 2022, however, when he went 8-9 with a 4.96 ERA in 28 starts for the Padres, the bloom was sufficiently off the rose that they let Manaea walk to free agency. The Giants took a chance on his potential, signing him to a two-year contract that is paying him $12.5 million this year.

But there’s been no return to form, only a continuation of the recent seasons’ inexplicably sub-par performances.

At least the Giants learned early to cut their losses. After a half dozen generally awful starts, in early May they sentenced Manaea to the bullpen, where he has largely performed in low-leverage filler roles. The results have been positive only by comparison: Manaea has a 4.98 ERA in the pen; as a starter he was 7.54.

Manaea’s -1.2 WAR equals the third worst among the 128 qualifying pitchers who are rated as starters. (Although Manaea is no longer starting, that was the vision for him at season’s start, so that’s how he’s measured.)  By comparison with the average WAR of others of his class, his WAR is worth -$11.583 million, which combined with his salary means he is overpaid by $24.083 million.

That’s a lot to pay for a pitcher you’re only using in mop-up roles.

14. Starling Marte, outfielder, New York Mets

Marte is one of three players on this list from the game’s largest payroll. He signed a four-year, $78 million deal prior to the 2022 season, and had a good first season in New York. Marte batted .292 with 16 home runs and an .814 OPS. His availability was one of the reasons why the Mets were generally viewed as a pre-season favorite in the NL East this year.

But 2023 has seen a loss of both average and power. He’s down to .254 with just five home runs and 28 RBIs, his OPS lingering around .640. Right field is supposed to be a production position. That’s not production.

Marte’s numbers don’t measure up with his peers. The 42 players qualified to be rated as right fielders are averaging 1.007 WAR on an average salary of $7.999 million. Obviously Marte’s $20.75 million compensation is not unusual within this group, whose members also include Kris Bryant ($28 million), Jason Heyward ($22.8 million), Aaron Judge ($40 million) and Mookie Betts ($21.16 million.)

Marte’s production does stick out…negatively. He’s carrying a -0.4 WAR, ranking eighth worst among his peers. That translates to being overpaid by $24.181 million, or about $3.4 million more than the Mets will pay Marte this year.

12. Carlos Correa, shortstop, Minnesota Twins

Correa’s signing odyssey this past winter was truly epic. Opting out of the deal he had signed the previous winter with the Twins, he signed with the Giants, only to have that deal voided when his new team grew antsy about a long-ago injury they feared might recur during the length of the long-term deal Correa wanted.

Then he agreed to terms with the Mets only to have that deal fall apart as well for the same reason. Twice rejected, Correa returned to Minnesota on a six-year, $200 million contract.

The Twins are in first place in the AL Central and Correa is a noted clubhouse leader, so from a team chemistry standpoint this contract may work out in the short-term. Clubhouse presence and marketing potential both figure in the true value of a player’s contract.

But strictly from the on-field part of things, the contract has been a clunker for the Twins. Correa is batting just .228 in 92 games with a tepid .705 OPS that would be the worst of his career. With two months remaining to the season, he is also on pace for the worst power year of his career.

There are 32 shortstops who qualify by salary or playing time as Correa’s peers in 2023. They earn an average of $9.56 million and generate an average of 1.459 WAR.

But despite being the second highest paid of those shortstops, Correa has to date produced just 1.2 WAR, ranking a tepid 20th on the list. Those numbers place Correa’s actual value for the first four months of 2023 at just $7.175 million. Against the positional averages and the $33.333 million he receives, it means Correa is overpaid by $25.47 million.

11. Max Scherzer, starting pitcher, New York Mets/Texas Rangers (following trade)

Scherzer is in the second year of a three-year, $130 million contract he signed with the Mets prior to 2022. That 2022 season went well; Scherzer made 23 starts and went 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA. But the Mets were drummed out of the 2022 post-season by the Padres in three quick games and Scherzer – who got hammered 7-1 in Game 1 of that series – was part of the reason why.

Scherzer’s 2023 numbers are okay for an average pitcher. He’s 8-4 with a 4.20 ERA in 18 starts, so both his record and his workload look good. Like Verlander, the problem is that Scherzer isn’t supposed to be an average pitcher; he’s supposed to be a superstar.

That’s how he’s being paid and that’s what he hasn’t been.

Scherzer’s 1.6 WAR is above the 1.032 positional average. But for the kind of coin Scherzer is drawing, his WAR ought to be two to three times that high. He’s pitching like a $16 million pitcher…more or less like teammate Kodai Senga, except Senga’s drawing 40 percent of Scherzer’s salary.

The math determines that Scherzer thus far in 2023 is being overpaid by $27.741 million.

10. Mike Trout, center fielder, Los Angeles Angels

As good as Mike Trout has been and continues to be, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that he is the face of the franchise in 2023. The Angels signed Anthony Rendon for more money in 2020, and their recently announced decision not to trade Shohei Ohtani strongly suggests they want to hold on to him as well beyond 2023.

That actually make sense because one-third of the way through his own 12-year, $426 million contract signed in 2019, Trout’s value may be beginning to wane. Virtually across the board – average, on base, slug – his productivity will hit career lows in 2023.

His 133 OPS+ is still good by the standards of the average player, but it’s 40 points below Trout’s career average in that category.

So it’s no surprise that the ‘overpaid’ list – and keep in mind here that’s we’re looking only at on-field performance relative to his peers — is not kind to Trout. The average qualified center fielder – there are 31 of them – earns just $5.047 million. Only catchers and second basemen as a group earn less. In return for that middle outfielders generate 1.628 WAR, making center field the single most productive position on the field.

At $37.117 million, Trout earns more than twice as much as any of his peers. Brandon Nimmo is second at $18.5 million. So based on the combination of salary and the position’s general productivity he ought to be an 11.4 WAR player. In reality he sits at 2.9 WAR.

That’s still the third best WAR of his class – only Luis Robert Jr. and Kevin Kiermaier have been more productive in 2023. But translating money to payroll, it still only values out to $8.99 million, meaning he is overpaid in the amount of $28.127 million.

9. Madison Bumgarner, starting pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks

When the Diamondbacks signed Madison Bumgarner to a five-year, $85 million contract prior to the 2020 season, the afterglow of Bumgarner’s three World Series starring roles in  2010, 2012 and 2014 was still discernible.

It was plausible in those days to envision him as something approaching the pitcher he had been with the Giants, even though in his final three seasons with San Francisco Bumgarner was basically ordinary.

With the Diamondbacks he was worse than ordinary: a 15-32 record and 5.23 ERA in 69 starts.

When D-Backs chief exec Mike Hazen finally gave up and cut the cord with Bumgarner in mid-April, he was 0-3 in four starts with a 10.26 ERA. Since nobody else has shown interest in signing the available 33-year-old pitcher, his career appears to be over.

But there’s still the matter of the $23 million salary that the Diamondbacks continue to owe Bumgarner through season’s end. In exchange for that, he generated -0.7 WAR, putting his dollar value at -$6.822 million.

Combine that ‘performance’ — if that’s not too strong a term – with his salary and Bumgarner is being overpaid by $28.704 million to not pitch for Arizona during most of the 2023 season.

8. Adam Wainwright, starting pitcher, St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals’ going-away present to Wainwright, who at 41 wraps up an 18-year career this season, was a one-year, $17.5 million deal for the sake of auld lang syne. Personally my bosses were never that warm-hearted, although I never worked for the Cardinals.

This was a case of sentiment getting in the way of reality. Wainwright could not even take the field until May, and since then he has gone 3-4 with a 7.31 ERA in 12 starts. His gives every indication of having stayed too long at the party.

The 2023 ERA is more than double his 3.46 career ERA. His 4.9 strikeout per nine innings rate is easily the worst of his career, as is his 14.0 hits per nine rate.

The data makes that $17.5 million contract look foolish for any reason beyond raw sentimentality. His -1.3 WAR is second worst among the 128 qualified pitchers and the only pitcher with a worse WAR – Cincinnati’s Luke Weaver – is drawing one-eighth the salary that Wainwright is receiving.

When you do the math, it sets Wainwright’s 2023 on-field value to the Cardinals at a staggeringly bad -$12.656 million. Combine that with his $17.5 million salary and the conclusion is that Wainwright is being overpaid by a matter of $30.156 million. That is how they do a going-away present in St. Louis.

7. Lance Lynn, starting pitcher, Chicago White Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers (after trade)

Lynn’s name has been a hot one these last few weeks for his value on the trade market. He’s a veteran presence who is widely perceived as having the ability to help a contender, which the White Sox most definitely are not.

Lynn is in the final season of a two-year, 38 million deal he signed prior to the start of 2022. That contract will pay him $18.5 million to pitch for a team that was expected to win the AL Central, but which is lingering in fourth place in the division as August looms.

He’s 6-9 with a 6.47 ERA in 21 starts. The good news about Lynn is those 21 starts. Many pitchers on this list qualify due to lack of availability, but Lynn qualifies for the opposite reason. He’s given up league-highs in hits (130), earned runs (86) and home runs (28).

With those numbers at age 36, the question may be asked whether Lynn still has his stuff. In the next week or so, some acquiring team may get the chance to find out.

For the present, Lynn’s performance – and especially his -1.2 WAR — justifies Lynn having paid the White Sox $11.694 million to pitch for them rather than the other way around. Combine that with his $18.5 million salary and the conclusion is that in 2023 Lynn is overpaid in the amount of $30.194 million.

6. Giancarlo Stanton, DH, New York Yankees

Stanton was one of the first mega signees, coming to terms on a 13-year, $325 million deal with the Miami Marlins after the 2014 season.

When the Marlins found that deal too onerous to actually follow through with, they traded Stanton to the Yankees for 2018. The Yanks owe Stanton $32 million this year, which remarkably makes him only the team’s third highest player beyond Aaron Judge ($40 million) and Gerrit Cole ($36 million.)

Stanton has not been as productive as either of his equally famous teammates. Playing only 52 games due to injuries, he’s hitting just .200 with 13 home runs and 34 RBIs. Those power totals are decent for a capable player, but you expect more than capability from Stanton, especially when he’s only batting .200 to start.

The shortcomings in Stanton’s value are underscored when you consider that his primary position is DH, the most offensive-oriented position of all. At $32 million, Stanton and Miguel Cabrera are the two highest-paid members of their DH class – earning close to four times the group average —  so they ought to be the most productive.

Stanton has not delivered on that expectation. His stats work out to a nominal +0.1 WAR, well below average for the sport as a whole and also well below the +0.652 average for the DH group.

When you translate Stanton’s 2023 production to money, he values out at $1.365 million to the Yankee cause.   That puts New York’s overpayment to him at $30.635 million.

5. Kyle Schwarber, left fielder, Philadelphia Phillies

At $20 million, Schwarber is the third best paid left fielder in baseball. Only Christian Yelich ($24.25 million) and Juan Soto ($23 million) pull down more for their 2023 play. That means expectations are high, especially in an offensive-oriented position, which left field decidedly is.

He’s in the second season of a three-year, $60 million contract, and the Phillies had nothing to complain about with respect to year one. Schwarber’s .218 average looked bad, but nobody hires Schwarber for average. He’s a power guy and he produced a league-leading 46 home runs in helping the Phillies reach the World Series.

The 2023 version of Schwarber has produced 26 home runs, so he’s off his 2022 pace but not horribly. But his slugging average is down from .504 to an unacceptable .424, and his .182 batting average has dropped into the realm where even committed power bats raise alarm.

In concert with his obvious defensive shortcomings, they reduce Schwarber’s 2023 WAR to -1.2, which matches the worst WAR of any of the 41 qualified left fielders. When you are both the third highest-paid and least productive player at your position, that is a problem.

In Schwarber’s case, that problem works out to being overpaid by $31.055 million.

4. Kris Bryant, right fielder, Colorado Rockies

Generally it’s the pitchers whose value is cropped by recurring injuries. But it also happens occasionally to position players. Kris Bryant is one of those.

In four of the six seasons since 2018, injuries have claimed large chunks out of Bryant’s availability, and hence his value. He missed 60 games in 2018, 26 in 2020, 120 last season and he’s missed close to 40 already in 2023.

When the Rockies signed Bryant as a free agent prior to the 2022 season, they knew his track record. They signed him anyway for $182 million through 2028. Only they can say whether they’re already regretting doing so.

The 2015 Rookie of the Year and 2016  MVP hasn’t been the same since his health concerns arose. A heel bruise sent him to the injury list on June 1, he was activated at the end of that month, but broke a finger this week and is now on the 60-day list.

It would surprise nobody if his 2023 season is over and his stats frozen at the current level. That level is lukewarm: a .251 average, eight homers and a .717 OPS. WAR views him as a -0.5 player.

WAR’s perception is in stark contrast with the perception of accountants in the Rockies’ front office, who see Bryant as a $28 million player. Anyway that’s what they’re paying him to produce that -0.5 WAR between injuries.

Among qualified right fielders, only Aaron Judge ($40 million) earns more than Bryant. Judge also has been injured, but that is where the Judge-Bryant comparisons end.

That -0.5 WAR Bryant has to live with works out to just under -$4.3 million based on the salary and production averages for all right fielders. Throw that atop his salary and the data says Bryant is overpaid by $31.972 million.

3. Stephen Strasburg, starting pitcher, Washington Nationals

Strasburg’s story is a familiar one, especially to Nationals fans. Darling of the 2009 draft, he was protected from arm injury so assiduously that the Nats even refused to violate a self-imposed innings limit when they qualified for the 2012 post-season.

That move paid off when Strasburg pitched Washington to the 2019 World Series win with a pair of victories over the Astros, in the process earning MVP honors for himself. He also earned a new contract, one that is supposed to have paid him $245 million by the time it expires at the end of 2026.

That post-2019 contract is the issue because despite all Washington’s precautions, Strasburg did develop recurring arm problems, and they have kept him virtually sidelined for four seasons. He has made only eight starts since 2020, pitching just 31 innings and winning just one game.

This year he will make $32.5 million under terms of that deal, but he has not and will not appear in a single game. There is now speculation that his career may be over, although unless Strasburg agrees to retire the Nats will still be out $32.5 million per season to him through 2025.

The facts that he has not pitched and that he will have received $32.5 million makes it easy to determine that in 2023 Stephen Strasburg is overpaid to the tune of $32.5 million. That makes him the most overpaid starter in the current game.

2. Miguel Cabrera, DH, Detroit Tigers

Mike Illitch loved Miguel Cabrera. In 2016, a short time before he died, Illitch gave the 2012 Triple Crown winner one of the sweetest deals in captivity: eight years and $248 million. That for a player already in his mid 30s and trending toward full-time DH appearances.

Cabrera’s WAR basically evaporated after 2016, topping out at 0.2 in 2018. He’s 40 this year and swings like a fellow his age. That means a .249 average and .651 OPS, about 70 points below the league average.

His WAR is negative for the third successive season, at -0.3. His salary, however, remains a robust $32 million for the final two months of that legacy contract.

Looking beyond sentimentality, the brutal fact is that measured by WAR Cabrera has been the sixth least productive DH in baseball this season, and that despite matching Giancarlo Stanton as the best paid. Given the average $9.621 million salary and 0.652 productivity of a DH, Cabrera’s -0.3 score works out to a value of -$4 million and change. That means he’s being overpaid by an imposing $36.096 million.

1. Anthony Rendon, third baseman, Los Angeles Angels

Rendon is one of three 2019 Nats – Strasburg and Corbin being the others – who cashed in on the team’s 2019 World Series success to sign prodigious new deals they have prodigiously failed to deliver on.

It’s as if the Nats’ 2019 team is hexed. If anything happens to Juan Soto, we’ll know for sure.

In Rendon’s case, the reward of that championship was a $245 million deal with the Angels through 2026. The Angels paid Rendon all that money to play third base for them, but he has done precious little of that, appearing in just 200 of his team’s 546 games since the deal was done.

At various times of his LA excursion Rendon has been on the injured list with: a groin strain, a knee contusion, a hamstring strain, a hip impingement, wrist inflammation, wrist surgery, another groin strain, another wrist injury and – most recently – a shin contusion.

He’s never played in more than 58 games a season for the Angels, and this year the shin injury has him idled at 43. But it’s not like the Angels are missing a big bat; when he has played Rendon has hit .236 with two homers and a puny .318 slugging average. Those numbers are a far cry from his .319 average, 34 home runs, 126 RBIs and 1.010 OPS for the Nats in 2019.

At least Rendon does have a positive WAR…barely. He’s at 0.1, which measured against the positional norms puts his on=field value to the Angels at $772,000. That’s basically the league minimum. The problem is that $38.571 million salary. Subtract the one from the other and it happens that Anthony Rendon is being overpaid by $37.779 million in 2023.

And his contract still has three more years of life left in it.