Baseball teams are often shortsighted when handing out contracts, as the Miami Marlins may find out in a couple years. They'll typically overpay for a player for his production in the near future and not worry about what the long-term effects will be for the club.
Ask San Francisco who signed Barry Zito five years ago to a seven-year deal that AVERAGES $18 million per season. In Zito’s case, even his short-term production wasn’t worth it as the lefty led the league in losses his second season as a Giant. Zito’s value to the team became so limited that the former Cy Young Award winner didn’t throw a pitch for them the entire 2010 postseason, when the Giants were crowned World Series Champions.
Not all free agents turn out like Zito, although the way teams blindly hand out these long-term free agent contracts you'd think he was the only case. Looking back at the free agent signings five years ago shows that San Francisco wasn’t the only one that made a big mistake.
Listed below are the biggest deals, in terms of total dollars, that were handed out that fateful offseason:
1. Alfonso Soriano, OF, Chicago (NL): eight years, $136 million: Hitting stats: .266/.320/.498 (average/on-base/slugging), 132 home runs, 367 RBIs, and 54 steals through five seasons. Was it worth it? Not at $17 million per season. Soriano, now 35, wasn’t bad his first two years (making two All-Star teams) but hasn’t hit above .258 since and there is still three years left on his deal ... yikes.
2. Barry Zito, SP, San Francisco: seven years, $126 million: Pitching stats: 43-61 record with a 4.55 ERA in 140 starts, while averaging a wild-thing-like 4.1 walks per nine innings in five seasons as a Giant. Was it worth it? No. Even if the 33-year-old came back a changed pitcher in 2012 and won the Cy Young Award it wouldn’t make up for what it has cost the Giants; roughly $90 million so far. In no season in San Francisco’s pitcher-friendly ballpark has his ERA even been below 4.00, while last year he was 3-4 with a 5.87 ERA.
3. Carlos Lee, OF/1B, Houston, six years, $100 million: Hitting stats: .286/338/.486 with 128 home runs and 504 RBIs through five years in Houston. Was it worth it? No. Though Lee has been durable (averaging 150 games per season) his numbers don’t warrant the more than $16 million he makes on an annual basis. Only once (2007) did he garner any MVP votes (finished 19th) or an All-Star selection. He'll turn 36 this season and hasn’t hit better than .275 since 2009.
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B, ...
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B, Chicago (NL): five years, $73 million: Hitting stats: .292/.357/.510 with 119 home runs, 453 RBIs, and 149 doubles. Was it worth it? Grading on the curve, yes. Ramirez, though he missed half the 2009 season and hit just .241 the following year, played a premium position and hit between .289 and .317 four of the five seasons.
5. J.D. Drew, OF, Boston: five years, $70 million: Hitting stats: .264/.370/.455 with 80 home runs, 286 RBIs, 333 walks, and one huge playoff-altering grand slam. Was it worth it? Minus the grand slam, no. But Boston was propelled to the 2007 World Series because of it. His last two seasons he hit a combined .237 while missing 104 games.
6. Gil Meche, SP, Kansas City: five years, $55 million: Pitching stats: 29-39 record with a 4.27 ERA and one All-Star appearance. Was it worth it? Surprisingly yes. Through two and a half seasons Meche was a sterling workhorse for an undermanned team that gave him little run-support or defense behind him. After leading the league in starts in ‘07 and ’08, while sporting a combined ERA of 3.82, Meche was heading for another stellar season in ‘09 before throwing 132 pitches in a 5–0 shutout of Arizona, lowering his ERA to 3.31. But Meche was never the same after that long outing and after missing a lot of the remaining season and some of the next, he retired and forfeited the remaining year (and salary) on his deal.
7. Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP, Boston: six years, $52 million: Pitching stats: 49-30 record with a 4.25 ERA and a fourth place finish in the 2008 Cy Young Award voting. Was it worth it? Not if you include the $51 million they paid his former team, pushing the total investment to $103 million. Dice-K struck out 201 batters his first season (going 15-12) and was 18-3 the following season with a 2.90 ERA, but has made just 44 starts in the three years since, while sporting a 5.03 ERA.
8. Gary Matthews Jr., OF, Los Angeles (AL): five years, $50 million: Hitting stats: .245/.322/.335 with 30 home runs and 169 RBIs since signing that deal. Was it worth it? No. A no-brainer. Matthews was released by the team after just three years, and following one season with the Mets (he hit .190 with one RBI in 36 games) he wasn’t picked up by anyone in 2011. Of course, the Angels were still paying nearly $11 million anyway.
9. Jason Schmidt, SP, Los Angeles (NL): three years, $47 million: Pitching stats: 3-6 record with a 6.02 ERA (not a misprint) in 10 starts from 2007-09. Was it worth it? No. Schmidt who'd been so good with the Giants from 2001-07 missed all of 2008 and most of these three years with injury-related problems.
10. Juan Pierre, OF, Los Angeles (NL): five years, $44 million: Hitting stats: .286/.330/.340 with 776 hits, 229 steals, and 373 runs scored. Was it worth it? Yes, but barely. Pierre led the league in steals with 68 in 2010 and has the best career at-bat to strike-out ratio among active players at 16:1. But on the flip-side he has a weak arm in the outfield and is limited to playing in left, while at the plate he’s averaged just 34 walks per season over the last five years.
