Ranking the 10 Worst MLB Contracts on the Books for the 2023 Season
There is no shortage of cautionary tales over the years when it comes to handing out megadeals in MLB free agency,. That will undoubtedly be in teams' minds this offseason as they explore signing the likes of Aaron Judge, Trea Turner, Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts.
While many of the ill-advised long-term deals handed out over the years have come and gone, there are still a handful on teams' books heading into the 2023 season.
Here, we've ranked the 10 worst contracts that teams are stuck with going forward, focusing on players with multiple years remaining on their current deal. The contracts were ranked based on remaining money owed, recent production and expected production going forward.
We'll start with a handful of bad contracts that are one or two years from the finish line.
Honorable Mentions: Almost Finished
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There is not enough time or money remaining on these contracts for them to crack our top 10, but they're still worth a mention:
One Year Left on Contract
- Miguel Cabrera, DET: $32 million
- Brandon Crawford, SF: $16 million
- Paul DeJong, STL: $9.2 million
- Josh Donaldson, NYY: $21 million
- Yasmani Grandal, CWS: $18.25 million
- Mike Moustakas, CIN: $18 million
- Joey Votto, CIN: $25 million
Two Years Left on Contract
- Madison Bumgarner, ARI: $37 million
- Hunter Dozier, KC: $16.75 million
- James McCann, NYM: $24.3 million
- Marcell Ozuna, ATL: $32 million (plus $1 million buyout on 2025 option)
10. 3B Yoán Moncada, Chicago White Sox
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Remaining Contract
2023: $17.8 million
2024: $24.8 million
The Chicago White Sox signed Yoán Moncada to a five-year, $70 million extension following a breakout 2019 season where he hit .315/.367/.548 for a 140 OPS+ with 34 doubles, 25 home runs and 5.2 WAR in 132 games.
His performance has been up and down in the years since, and the 2022 season was a clear down. He hit only .212 with a 76 OPS+ and 0.9 WAR in 104 games while missing time with quad and hamstring injuries.
His batted-ball data provides little in the way of optimism, as his hard-hit rate (33rd percentile), average exit velocity (43rd percentile), xBA (12th percentile) and xwOBA (18th percentile were all well below his career marks.
9. LHP Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox
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Remaining Contract
2023: $27.5 million
2024: $27.5 million
The Boston Red Sox will pay Chris Sale $17.5 million in each of the final two seasons of his contract, but they owe him another $10 million each year that will be deferred for more than a decade.
The 33-year-old was one of the game's elite pitchers at his peak, but he has been a non-factor the past three seasons. He's thrown only 48.1 innings since the start of the shortened 2020 campaign.
A stress fracture in his rib and a fractured pinky finger limited Sale to only 5.2 frames in 2022. At this point, the Red Sox have to consider anything he contributes a bonus rather than relying on him to hold down a spot in the rotation.
8. LHP Patrick Corbin, Washington Nationals
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Remaining Contract
2023: $24.4 million
2024: $35.4 million
The six-year, $140 million deal that Patrick Corbin signed with the Washington Nationals in December 2018 started on a high note. He went 14-7 with a 3.25 ERA and 238 strikeouts in 202 innings in 2019, finishing 11th in NL Cy Young voting and helping the Nationals win a World Series title.
The ensuing three years have gone from mediocre to really bad to even worse. Corbin bottomed out in 2022 when he finished 6-19 with a 6.31 ERA, 1.70 WHIP and minus-2.5 WAR in 31 starts.
The fact that Corbin has only two years left on his contract is why he doesn't rank higher here. There's a strong case to be made that he was MLB's least valuable player this past season.
7. OF Nick Castellanos, Philadelphia Phillies
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Remaining Contract
2023: $20 million
2024: $20 million
2025: $20 million
2026: $20 million
The Philadelphia Phillies spent big to bolster their outfield last offseason, signing Nick Castellanos (five years, $100 million) and Kyle Schwarber (four years, $79 million) to multiyear deals that yielded mixed results in 2022.
Schwarber led the National League with 46 home runs and was an All-Star and Silver Slugger winner, but Castellanos struggled at the plate on the heels of a terrific 2021 season in Cincinnati. The 30-year-old hit .263/.305/.389 with minus-0.1 WAR in 136 games, and his OPS+ plummeted from 138 to 95 while his total bases fell by more than 100.
He ranked near the bottom of the league in average exit velocity (22nd percentile), hard-hit rate (23rd percentile), whiff rate (10th percentile) and chase rate (6th percentile), which provides little optimism that things will turn around in 2023.
6. RHP José Berríos, Toronto Blue Jays
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Remaining Contract
2023: $15.7 million
2024: $17.7 million
2025: $18.7 million
2026: $18.7 million (can opt out after 2026)
2027: $24.7 million
2028: $24.7 million
The seven-year, $131 million extension that José Berríos signed with the Toronto Blue Jays last offseason seemed like a great move at the time. The 28-year-old was a year removed from free agency, and he was coming off a season where he posted a 3.52 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 204 strikeouts in 192 innings to finish ninth in AL Cy Young voting.
Expected to anchor the Toronto staff alongside free-agent signing Kevin Gausman, he was instead one of the worst starters in baseball, finishing with a 5.23 ERA and 1.42 WHIP while allowing an AL-high 199 hits and 100 earned runs. Opponents hit a gaudy .288/.340/.465 against him, and his batted-ball data across the board backs up the idea that he was more hittable than in years past.
Berríos did seem to be turning a corner down the stretch with six quality starts in his final nine appearances, but he has a long way to go to get back to being a pitcher who is worth what he'll earn in the coming years.
5. OF Kris Bryant, Colorado Rockies
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Remaining Contract
2023: $28 million
2024: $28 million
2025: $27 million
2026: $27 million
2027: $27 million
2028: $27 million
My immediate reaction to hearing the Colorado Rockies had signed Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract last offseason: Why?
One year after trading away homegrown superstar Nolan Arenado for pennies on the dollar, and in the same offseason where fellow homegrown star Trevor Story departed and left a hole behind at shortstop, they seemingly outbid themselves to sign an injury-prone player who didn't move the needle enough to make them anything close to a contender.
Sure enough, Bryant played only 42 games in his Rockies debut. Now that he's on the other side of 30 years old, those nagging issues that have cost him time in recent seasons are not likely to go away.
Bryant's contract could legitimately challenge for the No. 1 spot on this list in another year or two if he continues to miss time. But for now, there's still time for him to bounce back.
4. 3B Anthony Rendon, Los Angeles Angels
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Remaining Contract
2023: $38.6 million
2024: $38.6 million
2025: $38.6 million
2026: $38.6 million
The Anthony Rendon contract is what the Kris Bryant contract could become if he's unable to stay on the field over the next few seasons.
Following their World Series win in 2019, the Washington Nationals chose to re-sign Stephen Strasburg and let Rendon walk. Both players ultimately signed identical seven-year, $245 million deals.
After posting a 150 OPS+ and 2.2 WAR in 52 games during the shortened 2020 season, Rendon has played only 105 games over the past two years. The backloaded nature of his contract means that he's owed roughly 63 percent of his total salary heading into the final four years of the deal.
It's hard not to read into the Angels' recent addition of Gio Urshela as a fallback plan for Rendon, even if he was sold as a super-utility player at the time of the trade.
3. RHP Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals
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Remaining Contract
2023: $35 million
2024: $35 million
2025: $35 million
2026: $35 million
At least the Washington Nationals didn't clearly make the wrong choice on which star to re-sign following their 2019 World Series win. In truth, the right answer was to let both Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon walk, although that's easy to say with the benefit of hindsight.
While Rendon is still owed a bit more money, it's become increasingly difficult to envision Strasburg making any sort of positive impact over the remainder of his contract. That's why he ranks one spot higher than Rendon.
Since being crowned 2019 World Series MVP, Strasburg has made a grand total of eight starts, posting a 6.89 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 31.1 innings. He made only one start in 2022, allowing eight hits and seven earned runs in 4.2 innings.
To make matters worse for the Nationals, they deferred a staggering $80 million of Strasburg's contract, which will be paid out in three $26.7 million installments in 2027, 2028 and 2029. That means they'll still be paying him a premium long after he's gone.
2. DH Giancarlo Stanton, New York Yankees
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Remaining Contract
2023: $32 million
2024: $32 million
2025: $32 million
2026: $29 million
2027: $25 million
2028: $25 million (club option, $10 million buyout)
Giancarlo Stanton is now eight years into the 13-year, $325 million contract that he signed when he was still a member of the Miami Marlins, and he's coming off the worst season of his MLB career.
The 33-year-old slugged 31 home runs for the seventh 30-homer season of his career, but he hit only .211/.297/.462 to finish with a career-low 113 OPS+ in 110 games. His defensive contributions are also limited at this point, leaving him a 0.7-WAR player earning $29 million.
That figure will now climb to $32 million for the next three seasons. While there is some reprieve after that by way of a pair of $10 million payments from the Marlins in 2026 and 2027, it's still stacking up to be an Albert Pujols-esque back end of the deal.
1. OF Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers
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Remaining Contract
2023: $26 million
2024: $26 million
2025: $26 million
2026: $26 million
2027: $26 million
2028: $26 million
2029: $20 million (vested option)
It isn't that Christian Yelich is not a productive MLB player. He hit .252/.355/.383 for a 111 OPS+ with 2.7 WAR in 154 games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2022, and he has never had an OPS+ under 100 in any of his 10 MLB seasons.
However, the player who won NL MVP in 2018 and was runner-up for the award in 2019 when he had a 44-homer, 30-steal, 7.0-WAR campaign is nowhere to be found these days.
Since the start of the 2020 season, Yelich has hit .243/.358/.388 while averaging 17 home runs, 16 steals and 2.0 WAR per 162 games. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, it just isn't worth anywhere close to what he's making.
The fact that Yelich is playing for the small-market Brewers is what vaults him to the No. 1 spot in these rankings. They ranked 20th in the majors with a $143.5 million payroll in 2022, and Yelich accounted for roughly 15 percent of that figure. His contract is legitimately impacting the team's spending ability.
All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant, while contract info comes via Spotrac.
