Introducing MLB's 2025 All-Overpaid Team
It has been said that good help is hard to find, but it turns out it's also hard to buy good help in Major League Baseball.
Per Spotrac, there are 170 currently rostered players making at least $10 million in 2025. But that list doesn't even include the likes of Stephen Strasburg, José Abreu, Aaron Hicks, Mitch Haniger, Avisail Garcia and Eric Hosmer who still count against the payrolls of teams who had already removed them from their rosters before this season began.
Nor does it include the likes of Ryan Pressly, Chris Taylor, DJ LeMahieu and Jeimer Candelario, who were released during the regular season. (Don't worry. We made sure to consider all of them here.)
To put it lightly, those 180-plus players aren't all worth what they're getting. In fact, a bunch of them are getting eight-figure salaries while producing at a below-replacement level, per Baseball Reference.
We'll discuss two overpaid players at each position, five starting pitchers, and five relief pitchers on this 28-player All-Overpaid Team that is making a combined total of $513.6* million in 2025—which is more than six times the estimated $84 million tax payroll of the Miami Marlins, who somehow still have a faint playoff pulse.
By the way, that total doesn't even include the eight players who we'll mention in the "fully sunk cost division" intermission who are making at least $10 million and have yet to pitch this season. Factor them in and you're up north of $670 million.
Might want to have some anti-nausea medicine nearby for this one.
*Last year's all-overpaid team had a combined salary of more than $615 million, so at least we're improving?
Catcher
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Worst ROI: Mitch Garver, Seattle Mariners
$12.5M, 0.2 bWAR
Of Seattle's eight-figure payments to players named Mitch, at least Garver has been less of a sunk cost than Haniger, contributing both replacement-level value when he does play and providing Cal Raleigh with a break from catching once or twice a week.
That's definitely worth something, but there's no question Garver hasn't performed at anything close to the level he used to be at to be deemed worthy of that two-year, $24 million deal two winters ago.
From 2019-23, he triple-slashed .250/.346/.508. He was often injured, but he did hit quite well when healthy, averaging one home run for every 4.3 games played. He was also a key contributor during Texas' World Series run in 2023, starting at DH for each of those final 14 postseason games and driving in 14 runs.
But he's presently averaging more than 10 games played per home run and slugging below .350 for a second consecutive year. Instead of starting in every game the Mariners play in October (provided they get there), Garver might only make the roster because it'd be foolish not to have a back-up catcher.
Runner-Up: Christian Vázquez, Minnesota Twins
$10M, -0.1 bWAR
As Minnesota traded away anything and everything of value, Vázquez was just about the only impending free agent it wasn't able to unload. That pretty well sums up how things have been going in what is his third consecutive season with a negative WAR.
First Base
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Worst ROI: Christian Walker, Houston Astros
$20M, -0.5 bWAR
Over the previous three seasons, Walker supplied the Diamondbacks with incredible value. Instead of $20 million for one year, he cost them a combined total of $20 million for three years in which he both won a Gold Glove and posted an OPS of .800 or better in each.
To put it lightly, Houston didn't get that version of Walker. Not for the first half of the season, at least.
Per Baseball Savant, the 34-year-old produced a Fielding Run Value of +30 and an Outs Above Average mark of +39 over the past three seasons, but he's sitting at a 0 in both departments this year. That isn't terrible by first basemen fielding standards, but it's a sharp decline in his production. That streak of Gold Gloves is almost certainly coming to an end.
At the plate, Walker has turned a corner since the beginning of July with an .866 OPS in 31 games played. However, that "like old times" stretch of six weeks only surfaced after he posted a .635 OPS through Houston's first 84 games—a deep hole from which his year-to-date stats are still trying to climb.
Runner-Up: José Abreu, Houston Astros
$19.5M, has not played in 2025
Adding insult to the injury of Walker's poor play is the fact that Houston was already paying $19.5 million in 2025 for this first baseman it had released last June, not even halfway through his three-year, $58.5 million contract. At least Abreu isn't actively hurting the team with poor play. But if he had just lived up to his contract in the first place, they never would've felt the need to sign Walker, for what is now a subpar, $40 million first-base situation.
"Honorable" Mentions: Eric Hosmer, Nathaniel Lowe
Second Base
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Worst ROI: DJ LeMahieu, New York Yankees
$15M, 0.7 bWAR
At just about any other position, $15 million for a 0.7 WAR wouldn't even register as a viable candidate for this list, let alone the near-indisputable choice for worst ROI.
Alas, high-salaried second basemen are few and far between, with Marcus Semien's $26 million salary very much the exception to a rule where no one else even makes $16 million.
And we'll say this much in LeMahieu's defense: He was considerably more productive in 2025 than in 2024, when he posted a .527 OPS in 67 games between both starting and finishing the season on the IL.
But improving from a .527 OPS to a .674 OPS wasn't enough to save LeMahieu's job once it became clear Jazz Chisholm Jr. needed to move from third base back to second base. The Yankees released LeMahieu a few days after that move, and more than a month later, still no one has felt compelled to give the 37-year-old another shot.
Runner-Up: Chris Taylor, Los Angeles Dodgers
$13M, -0.5 bWAR
Taylor has only made seven appearances at second base this season, but he has played there enough over the years that it's hardly out of line to slot the utilityman here. He made just 35 plate appearances with the Dodgers before getting the boot with a .457 OPS. He later signed with the Angels for the league minimum and hasn't been much more productive with more IL stints (two) than home runs hit (one).
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Third Base
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Worst ROI: Anthony Rendon, Los Angeles Angels
$38.6M, has not played in 2025
With each passing year, Rendon's section in this type of article just gets a little sadder.
In the three years before signing the seven-year, $245 million contract that has since become an albatross of the highest order, he was sensational.
Though he didn't win any batting titles, he hit north of .300 in each of 2017, 2018 and 2019, his cumulative .953 OPS good for fifth-best among qualified hitters. And in Washington's 17 postseason games en route to the 2019 World Series, he played every single inning at third base with a 1.003 OPS.
But after posting a .915 OPS during the truncated 2020 campaign—his first with the Angels—Rendon was never the same again.
Since the beginning of 2021, Rendon has made roughly $177 million, but it has been one injury after the next with minimal production in between the many trips to the IL. He has appeared in just 205 of a possible 765 games, batting .231/.329/.336, and it's unlikely he'll play at all this season.
Runner-Up: Jeimer Candelario, Cincinnati Reds
$15M, -0.9 bWAR
It won't go down in history alongside Rendon's as an all-time blunder, but Cincinnati's three-year, $45 million investment in Candelario didn't pan out in the slightest. At least he hit 20 home runs last season, even if it did come with a -0.7 WAR. Cincinnati released him midway through the second year of his deal with a .410 OPS.
Shortstop
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Worst ROI: Carlos Correa, Minnesota Twins
$27.6M, 0.1 bWAR
This was the third season of Correa's six-year, $200 million deal with the Twins, and for whatever reason, the most expensive of the bunch at a $37.3 million payroll salary.
Save for a 19-game surge in May with an .875 OPS, though, the 30-year-old shortstop just didn't have it this season. And with a salary that accounted for more than 26 percent of Minnesota's Opening Day payroll, his .704 OPS and general mediocrity was just about indisputably the biggest reason the Twins put together a colossal fire sale at the trade deadline.
But the real kick in the teeth here isn't that he struggled in Minnesota this season.
It's that Correa magically remembered how to be awesome by getting traded back to Houston, where he is batting .405 with a 1.098 OPS in nine games played. (And that Minnesota agreed to retain about a third of what was left on the contract in order to broker the deal.)
Runner-Up: Ha-Seong Kim, Tampa Bay Rays
$13M, 0.2 bWAR
When the Rays signed Kim to a one-year, $13 million deal with a $16 million player option for a second season, they knew he was unlikely to be ready for Opening Day while recovering from shoulder surgery.
What they almost certainly didn't realize is that he wouldn't make his season debut until July 4, and that he would be a shell of his former self. At this point, they are praying he plays well enough down the stretch to turn down that player option and re-enter free agency.
Left Field
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Worst ROI: Michael Conforto, Los Angeles Dodgers
$17M, -0.6 bWAR
Credit where it's due, Conforto did briefly wake up from his season-long slumber with a productive July, posting an .827 OPS that ranked one point ahead of teammate Shohei Ohtani's .826 mark.
However, Conforto entered July with a .602 OPS, has more than regressed to a .431 mark thus far this month and may well be a candidate to hit waivers in late August if some combination of currently injured Kiké Hernández, Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim are healthy by then.
Conforto always has been a streaky hitter. Just last year, he had an .821 OPS at the end of May, plummeted to a .589 mark in June and July and surged back with an .859 mark in August in September. Bit of a similar story in 2023, mashing in both May and August in between runs of ineffectiveness.
Los Angeles rather hoped there would be more hot streaks than this, though.
Runner-Up: Tyler O'Neill, Baltimore Orioles
$16.5M, 0.0 bWAR
O'Neill did his usual thing of homering on Opening Day, but otherwise hasn't been worth Baltimore's investment. By the time the O's season was unofficially over after 50 games, he was already on the IL for a second time, and with a .605 OPS, to boot. And though he did have a nice little 18-game run from July 4 into early August, he's back on the shelf again.
"Honorable" Mentions: Jurickson Profar, Anthony Santander, Max Kepler, Andrew Benintendi, Yordan Alvarez
Center Field
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Worst ROI: Aaron Hicks, New York Yankees
$10.785M, has not played in 2025
The Yankees cut Hicks more than two calendar years ago, and they're almost done paying out the seven-year, $70 million that they pretty much immediately lived to regret.
Rather than harp on Hicks, though, let's use this space to point out there are shockingly few center fielders with eight-figure salaries in baseball these days.
Now that Mike Trout has transitioned to RF/DH, Cody Bellinger is the highest-paid CF in the game today—and even he has logged more innings in both LF and RF than in CF this season. Beyond Bellinger, Julio Rodríguez, Jung Hoo Lee, Byron Buxton and Luis Robert Jr. are the only center fielders making at least $9 million in 2025. (Unless you want to count Javier Báez, who dabbles there on occasion.)
Granted, Jackson Merrill signed a $135 million extension earlier this year, and both Pete Crow-Armstrong and Andy Pages look to be well on their way to massive contracts in the future. But it's pretty wild that Cedric Mullins is in the if-you-don't-count-Bellinger top five among center fielder salaries at $8.725 million.
Runner-Up: Lane Thomas, Cleveland Guardians
$7.83M, -0.7 bWAR
Fans in Cleveland will never forget the Lane Train's grand slam off Tarik Skubal in the do-or-die Game 5 of the 2024 ALDS. But he sure has derailed this season, playing in just 39 games with a .518 OPS in between three separate trips to the IL.
Right Field
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Worst ROI: Nick Castellanos, Philadelphia Phillies
$20M, -0.9 bWAR
If you can ignore his value subtracted on defense, Castellanos hasn't been half bad. Both his OPS+ on Baseball-Reference and his wRC+ on FanGraphs are just about smack dab at the MLB average mark of 100. He's also on pace for slightly better than 20 home runs and 80 RBI with a .260 batting average, all of which is thoroughly "not too shabby" in today's game.
However, the terrible defense remains an inescapable part of his story.
And, if anything, it's getting worse, not better.
Castellanos ranks dead-last in the majors in Fielding Run Value (minus-12), and he's bottom three in Outs Above Average (minus-11). What's funny is he hasn't actually committed any errors yet this season, but out probability and similar range-based metrics show he simply does not get to nearly as many balls as he should.
If the Phillies fail to re-sign Kyle Schwarber, the silver lining is they could remove Castellanos' glove from the equation in the final year of his contract by making him the primary DH.
Runner-Up: Jorge Soler, Los Angeles Angels
$16M, -0.5 bWAR
Soler can still obliterate baseballs on occasion. In fact, the 200th home run of his career traveled 448 feet in early July. But those moonshots don't happen as often as they used to, slugging below .400 for what would be the first time since 2017. And though he has only played 40 games in the field this season, he hasn't been any better on defense than Castellanos.
"Honorable" Mentions: Mitch Haniger, Bryan Reynolds, Avisail Garcia
Designated Hitter
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Worst ROI: Kris Bryant, Colorado Rockies
$27M, -0.5 bWAR
Because Colorado has been so hopelessly irrelevant over the past four seasons and because the $245 million contracts of Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg have been even more disastrous, we seem to forget just how awful this $182 million contract has been for the Rockies.
Since it began in 2022, Bryant has appeared in 170 games with a .695 OPS and a minus-1.6 bWAR, each season seemingly worse than the last. He made it just 11 games into the current campaign before hitting the IL with lumbar degenerative disk disease, and he basically hasn't been heard from since.
At least with Rendon and Strasburg, the finish line is within sight, those hideous contracts ending after next season. (Though, the Nationals do still owe their retired ace quite a bit of deferred money.) Bryant is still under contract for another three years, and we'll see if the Rockies can eventually finish within 25 games of .500 in one of them, because they haven't done so yet with him on the roster.
Runner-Up: Joc Pederson, Texas Rangers
$18.5M, -0.5 bWAR
Pederson all of a sudden has started raking in August, posting a 1.336 OPS through the first 10 days of the month. But he entered it batting .120, appearing in just 50 of Texas' first 110 games because of two months spent on the IL. And even during this recent hot streak, he has been doing a lot of pinch hitting and early exiting because he is undeployable against left-handed pitching.
"Honorable" Mentions: Masataka Yoshida, Starling Marte
Intermission (Fully Sunk Cost Division)
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Rather than sprinkling the expensive UCL surgeries in among the healthy-ish pitchers who simply aren't faring well this season, let's quickly run through the players making at least $10 million who have yet to (and in many cases will not) throw a pitch this season.
Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees ($36M)—Cole had Tommy John surgery in March, from which the Yankees are still trying to recover. Assuming a "standard" recovery window, he could be back on the mound in Yankee Stadium around Memorial Day 2026.
Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals ($32.8M)—Strasburg officially retired at the beginning of last season, but Washington continues to pay out a $245 million contract for which he logged just 31.1 innings with a 6.89 ERA. And because a significant chunk of the contract was deferred, they still owe him $107.6 million even after this season ends.
Jordan Montgomery, Arizona Diamondbacks/Milwaukee Brewers ($22.5M)—Monty underwent Tommy John surgery late in spring training. He won't pitch this season and will probably miss the first half of 2026.
Joe Musgrove, San Diego Padres ($20M)—Despite undergoing Tommy John surgery in October, there have been recent reports that Musgrove is optimistic he could be back to contribute for the Padres during the postseason. Hard to imagine they'll allow that to happen, though, as he still has two years left on his contract that they'd rather not ruin with an injury caused by rushing back too soon.
Alex Cobb, Detroit Tigers ($15M)—Cobb has yet to pitch this season due to hip injuries. He made a couple of rehab appearances two months ago before getting shut down, and he has made three more in the past few weeks. Maybe it'll be a repeat of last season in Cleveland, where he made just three appearances during the regular season, yet still made a pair of starts in the playoffs.
Robert Stephenson, Los Angeles Angels ($11M)—Not quite a fully sunk cost here. Stephenson did pitch one inning in late May and could be back from a biceps injury later this month. But more than halfway through a three-year, $33 million contract signed two winters ago, he has thrown a grand total of 15 pitches for the Angels.
Cristian Javier, Houston Astros ($10.4M)—Javier made his season debut Monday night, returning from Tommy John surgery just in time for what the Astros hope is a spirited effort to keep the Mariners from winning the AL West. He signed a back-loaded, five-year, $64 million deal before the 2023 campaign, and perhaps these next seven weeks will clue us in on what to expect on what will be a $21.4 million salary in each of 2026 and 2027.
Shane Bieber, Cleveland Guardians/Toronto Blue Jays ($10M)—Bieber has been quite dominant in his rehab appearances and is probably just one more away from making his season debut after undergoing Tommy John surgery last April. For the time being, though, the ROI has been nil.
Starting Pitchers
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Before we dive in here, let's quickly note that the state of high-priced mediocrity among starting pitchers is kind of out of control. Even excluding the five fully-sunk costs just mentioned, there are 15 starting pitchers making at least $15M and amounting to 0.1 bWAR or worse. Jack Flaherty is making $25M for a 6-11 record with a 4.56 ERA, and he wasn't anything close to a candidate for this sad rotation, because there are so many worse options. It's practically 50-50 at this point whether you'll get any return on an investment of at least $15M AAV on a starting pitcher.
SP1: Blake Snell, Los Angeles Dodgers
$36.4M, 0.1 bWAR
Since his return from four months on the IL, Snell has given the Dodgers 10 innings with a 2.70 ERA and a 16.2 K/9. If he keeps that up and has a strong, World Series-bound finish to the first season of his five-year, $182 million contract, we'll eventually forget he gave Los Angeles basically nothing through its first 110 games. For now, though, the third-highest paid pitcher in the majors hasn't even remotely kept pace with the two Cy Young hopefuls making more than him (Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom).
SP2: Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies
$24.6M, 0.0 bWAR
Normally the patron saint of durability, this will be Nola's first season failing to log enough innings to qualify for an ERA title since 2016, nearing a return from what has been almost three months on the IL at this point. When he does return, he'll do so with a 6.16 ERA and with questions as to whether he should even sniff Philadelphia's postseason rotation.
SP3: Walker Buehler, Boston Red Sox
$21.05M, -0.9 bWAR
Buehler has tallied three quality starts in his last five appearances. Has he actually turned a corner, though? The 3.21 ERA during that stretch looks swell, but the 5.57 FIP stemming from 14 walks and 14 strikeouts over the course of 28 innings suggests he's just a luckier version of the Buehler who had a 6.25 ERA through his first 15 starts. For the sake of Boston's postseason hopes, that good luck better continue.
SP4: Yu Darvish, San Diego Padres
$21M, -0.2 bWAR
Darvish went seven scoreless innings in a July 30 win over the Mets, but has otherwise allowed 20 earned runs in 20.2 innings of work since missing the first half of the season with elbow inflammation. He turns 39 later this week and still has three years left on his $108 million deal.
SP5: Eduardo Rodriguez, Arizona Diamondbacks
$20M, -0.6 bWAR
Arizona spent nearly $90 million this season for Corbin Burnes to make 12 starts before Tommy John surgery, Jordan Montgomery to miss the entire season and for both Rodriguez and Zac Gallen to post an ERA well north of 5.00. For E-Rod in particular, it's a second straight lost season after they made a substantial investment in him early on two free agency cycles ago. He was supposed to be the guy who got the D-backs over the hump from World Series runners-up to champs. Instead, he's a major reason they're going to miss the postseason for a second consecutive year.
Relief Pitchers
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RP1: Ryan Pressly, Chicago Cubs
$16.5M, -0.6 bWAR
At least the Astros retained one-third of this, so the Cubs only set $11 million ablaze here. Pressly actually had a stretch of two-and-a-half months in the first half in which he allowed zero earned runs in 26 out of 27 appearances. Because the exception was a zero-out, eight-run calamity, though, he barely managed a sub-3.00 ERA during that time. And it was the 12.60 ERA over his final five appearances in July that led to his one-way trip to free agency.
RP2: Raisel Iglesias, Atlanta Braves
$16M, 0.0 bWAR
Through his first 25 appearances, Iglesias had a 6.75 ERA with just eight saves against four blown saves and five losses. At that point, he was just about the poster boy of spending gone wrong. However, he has a 1.90 ERA in his 25 appearances since then. Hasn't done anything to turn Atlanta's season around, but at least he saved some face.
RP3: Kirby Yates, Los Angeles Dodgers
$13M, 0.0 bWAR
RP4: Tanner Scott, Los Angeles Dodgers
$16.2M, 0.1 bWAR
RP5: Blake Treinen, Los Angeles Dodgers
$11M, 0.0 bWAR
Plenty of directions we could go to round out this rough bullpen, including Jordan Hicks, Chad Green, Jose Leclerc and Rafael Montero, the latter of whom has been kicked around to three different teams and may well have already worn out his welcome with the Tigers. Both Devin Williams and Jordan Romano have also been thoroughly underwhelming in the $8.5 million salary range.
But let's keep it simple and roll with three Dodgers, as adding/retaining this trio of arms was a big part of what made this team feel like the inevitable World Series champions in the preseason.
Instead, all three have an ERA north of 4.00 and have blown a combined total of 11 saves—this despite Treinen missing more than three months on the IL and despite both Scott and Yates presently residing on the shelf.
At one point, the Dodgers' 40-man roster and long list of players on the IL featured eight different pitchers with at least 10 career saves—these three plus Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, Lou Trivino and Alexis Díaz. And yet, it's presently Alex Vesia getting the call in the ninth inning in what is quite the microcosm of everything that has gone wrong in this bullpen.
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