Ten horrible MLB pitching contracts – Part 1
MLB and all the teams that play under it are known for their spending and the more lucrative and sometimes almost unbelievable deals that take place between the players and management. It has been said that the more you spend on a player in terms of financial
gains, the more a player performs.
That is what all teams want, for their players to perform. But sadly, if that were the case then no one would ever be able to beat the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox, the game’s biggest spenders. There are many players who earn big bucks from the
contracts they have signed, but fail to perform, or live up to what has been expected from them for the kind of money that they have been paid. But money is not the only thing, at times, the players ask for certain surprising clauses in their contracts, which
the management has to agree to. Here’s a look at some of the most ridiculous ones.
The New York Mets signed a contract worth $36 million, which would go on for three years with Oliver Perez in February of 2009. However since then, Perez has barely played for the Mets. The team hardly plays him as his performances are very poor. It seems
that the Mets are losing money on this contract as the player has not lived up to the expectations they had in him. With the Mets struggling, it will be a smarter move to avoid these horrible contracts that are a complete waste of money and spend on players
that actually perform.
In 2007, the Seattle Mariners signed on Carlos Silva for a whooping $48 million for four years. Silva failed to impress everyone after that, his 6.46 ERA was not what anyone expected from a player who was getting big bucks for performing. He later suffered
from a shoulder injury and was unable to pitch for extended periods. The Mariners traded Silva to the Cubs in 2009 and it seems that Seattle has learned their lesson on wasting big money on not so talented players.
In 2000, the Colorado Rockies gave Denny Neagle a five-year $51 million contract. The Rockies were in for some serious disappointment as Neagle’s performance was not worth the money he was getting. The player just sat on the bench as his performances were
substandard. The Rockies ended their contract with Neagle after some scandals broke out regarding the player approaching prostitutes came out. He was also one of the players mentioned in the Mitchell Report regarding steroid use. The Rockies will be happy
to have ended their expensive relationship with this player and hopefully learn not to spend so much on so little.
It seems that in today’s game of baseball, so many teams are suckered into big wasteful contracts on players that are quite mediocre if at all. The hype from the scouts and agents tends to build up the hopes of the teams that are struggling to achieve some
sort of success in the competitive arena of MLB. These teams are willing to spend anything on the next “big thing” and they hope and pray that their wasteful investment will pay off sooner or later. Most of the time the players turn out to be limited in their
abilities and are usually only fueled by the money and not by their performances on the field.
Continued in Part 2
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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