MLB's Most Overpaid Player at Every Position
While some Major League Baseball players are worth every penny of their salary and then some, others are being painfully overpaid.
Contrary to a "nightmare contracts" type of article where we look at the total amount still owed to players, we will be focusing exclusively on 2026 salaries. More specifically, we're looking at luxury tax payrolls and how much each player counts toward his team's "cap" for tax purposes. (Might as well get used to it. Talk of salary cap will be hot and heavy for the next 12-24 months.)
Those luxury tax salaries are according to Spotrac. And to get a sense of what the teams might be paying for, we've included Steamer projections of 2026 FanGraphs WAR.
This entire 21-man roster would cost about $460M...and wouldn't be expected to finish above .500.
Catcher: Sean Murphy, Atlanta Braves
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Luxury Tax Salary: $12.167M
Steamer Projection: 1.3 fWAR
Right off the bat, we've got to tackle the toughest decision of them all.
Both Kansas City's Salvador Perez ($12.5M, 1.4 fWAR) and Philadelphia's J.T. Realmuto ($15M, 1.4 fWAR) are also projected for around $10M per 1.0 fWAR and easily could be the pick here.
But at least those veteran backstops don't enter 2026 on a streak of two consecutive seasons hitting below the Mendoza Line and on the wrong end of a timeshare with the catcher who won 2025 NL Rookie of the Year (Drake Baldwin).
In fairness to Murphy, he did have a solid first half, hitting 16 home runs in his first 220 trips to the plate. Not quite Cal Raleigh levels, but he was operating at a 162-game pace of 44 dingers—before failing to homer once in his final 117 plate appearances.
Because Marcell Ozuna is out of the picture and because it's now looking like Atlanta won't have Ha-Seong Kim for the first month or two of the season, we do rather expect Murphy and Baldwin to split the catcher and DH duties. Maybe that will help him bounce back at the dish. And at least he has remained an above-average defensive asset.
At the moment, though, that six-year, $73M extension signed in Dec. 2022 is getting regrettable.
First Base: Christian Walker, Houston Astros
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Luxury Tax Salary: $20M
Steamer Projection: 1.2 fWAR
When Christian Walker hit free agency last winter fresh off three consecutive Gold Glove seasons with an OPS north of .800, the big question was whether he could keep it up into his mid-30s.
Walker turned 34 basically on Opening Day this past season and struggled mightily through his first 50 games with Houston before turning a corner and thriving down the stretch in year No. 1 of his three-year contract.
And, yes, that is most definitely José Abreu déjà vu you are feeling.
Abreu was two years older when he signed his three-year deal with Houston before the 2023 campaign, but let's compare.
Abreu through 50 games played: .519 OPS, zero home runs
Abreu the rest of the season: .768 OPS, 18 home runs (162-game pace of 32.0)
Walker through 50 games played: .591 OPS, five home runs
Walker the rest of the season: .778 OPS, 22 home runs (162-game pace of 34.3)
The Astros are desperately hoping the comparison ends there, though. If you'll recall, they released Abreu in mid-June of his second season, and they were still paying him $19.5M in 2025 while also giving Walker $20M.
If Walker craters to a similar degree, at least they could put Isaac Paredes (who presently doesn't have a clear home in the field) at first base. But having something behind the "break in case of emergency" glass is a silver lining on a potential storm cloud.
Second Base: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros
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Luxury Tax Salary: $25M
Steamer Projection: 2.6 fWAR
Cases could be made here for Marcus Semien, Gleyber Torres or Andrés Giménez, but why not go straight to the top for the guy making the most money of any second baseman?
Jose Altuve is actually getting $30M cash from Houston both this year and next before his payment drops to $10M for each of 2028 and 2029. But the luxury tax hit on his five-year, $125M contract is $25M, which is the pertinent figure for an Astros team that is closer to landing exactly at the competitive balance tax threshold than any other team at the moment.
Whether you want to call it $25M or $30M, though, it's too much for a player who turns 36 in May and who is fresh off the least productive season of his career (excluding 2020).
Altuve did still hit 26 home runs, but the career .300 hitter batted .265 for the year and .226 from August 1 onward. And in splitting his time between left field and second base, he was a disaster at the former and nothing special at the latter—which is why they wanted to try him out somewhere else in the first place.
Can he re-harness his batting eye and be worth more than 0.5 bWAR in 2026?
Or is this about to become a crippling contract?
Third Base: Bo Bichette, New York Mets
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Luxury Tax Salary: $42M
Steamer Projection: 3.9 fWAR
The actual, correct pick at third base is the same one that it has been for the past half decade. Though the Angels restructured the final year of Anthony Rendon's contract to defer payments to 2028-30, the hit against their 2026 luxury tax payroll is $33.9M for a guy who will not play.
However, the Angels are sitting more than $40M below the tax threshold, so it doesn't figure to impact them in any way. I'm also tired of dunking on a guy who played a massive role for the 2019 World Series champs and would rather discuss a new third baseman in one of these articles for a change.
And Bo Bichette is, in fact, a new third baseman, never once manning the hot corner in his decade of professional baseball. But the Mets evidently think the solution to him ranking dead-last in Fielding Run Value among all middle infielders in 2025 is to make him a corner infielder instead.
Maybe it works out. At any rate, range has been his problem more so than arm strength.
Even if he's fine on defense, though, $42M per year for a guy with a career OPS of .806 is patently absurd.
The next-highest luxury-tax salary among all infielders in 2026 is Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at 85 percent of Bichette's mark.
A two-time All-Star who has never finished top 10 in an MVP vote has a tax salary that ranks top-five in all of baseball—$2M ahead of three-time MVP Aaron Judge, a little over $4M behind four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani. And, again, he'll be asked to play a position he has never played before.
It's ridiculous.
Shortstop: Javier Báez, Detroit Tigers
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Luxury Tax Salary: $23.33M
Steamer Projection: 0.4 fWAR
In the first half of this past season, it looked as though Javier Báez had discovered the fountain of youth.
After posting a .610 OPS through the first three seasons of his six-year, $140M contract, he had a .799 OPS through Detroit's first 81 games. Not only that, but after three years of exclusively playing shortstop, he bounced from short to center to third to second and back again on his way to the All-Star Game.
But then the carriage turned back into a pumpkin and the all-too-familiar Báez returned for a .535 OPS over the Tigers' latter 81 contests—though he did bounce back for 10 hits in their eight postseason games.
Steamer is clearly expecting more of the Báez who struggled in the second half and who had a .566 OPS between 2023 and 2024, in which case this salary will become all sorts of problematic again—particularly when taken in conjunction with Gleyber Torres' $22.025M, Jack Flaherty's $17.5M and the possible $32M for Tarik Skubal, if they lose the arbitration hearing and don't trade him away.
Left Field: Kris Bryant, Colorado Rockies
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Luxury Tax Salary: $26M
Steamer Projection: -0.2 fWAR
Four years down, three to go.
It'll never be deemed as painful as the $245M deals given to Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon, nor Miguel Cabrera's $248M extension, simply because $182M is a much lower number. But Kris Bryant's seven-year contract with Colorado has been an all-timer of a calamity.
When that deal was signed, Bryant looked like a borderline Hall of Famer. At any rate, he got one year more for $1M AAV less than what Freddie Freeman got that same winter.
Alas, the 2016 NL MVP and four-time All-Star hasn't exactly panned out as well as the 2020 NL MVP and then-five-time All-Star has.
Thus far, Bryant has missed 478 games while playing in just 170. And even in those 170 games played, he has a sub-.700 OPS and a bWAR of negative-1.6 that suggests Colorado is better off when he doesn't play. (In reality, they've had a .423 winning percentage when he's in the lineup, compared to .333 when he isn't.)
Maybe he'll be just a little bit healthy for a change, though.
Right Field: Nick Castellanos, Philadelphia Phillies
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Luxury Tax Salary: $20M
Steamer Projection: -0.1 fWAR
By all accounts, Nick Castellanos isn't expected to actually make it to Opening Day as a member of the Phillies.
But unless they're able to trade him away, they're going to get stuck holding a $20M bag if they release him—which is actually more like $42M for a three-time tax offender with a projected tax payroll more than $80M north of the CBT threshold.
But now that the likes of Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger and even Luis Robert Jr. are off the board, perhaps they can convince a desperate team to pick up the tab here?
Regardless, because of the combination of his atrocious defensive metrics in right field and his perfectly pedestrian 100 wRC+ and 100 OPS+ marks over the past four seasons combined, let's just say the forecasting models aren't expecting him to be worth $20M in 2026.
Even if he moves from right field to first base and fares reasonably well, Castellanos has basically been a right-handed-only version of Josh Bell at the plate—and he was only deemed worthy of a $7M deal with the Twins this winter.
Third Outfielder: Kyle Tucker, Los Angeles Dodgers
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Luxury Tax Salary: $57.18M
Steamer Projection: 3.8 fWAR
(There's no particularly great candidate among center fielders, so we're going with a third corner outfielder on this team. They can take turns struggling in center when this roster hypothetically squares off with the to-be-determined All-Underpaid team.)
Kyle Tucker is very good at baseball. Though he has never come even remotely close to winning an MVP, he's a four-time All-Star who has been the 10th-most valuable position player in all of baseball over the past five years, per FanGraphs. And if he hadn't missed half of 2024 with a fractured shin, he'd probably be close to top five on that list.
A $57.18M luxury tax salary, though?
Highest in all of baseball by a margin of more than 12 percent?
Beg pardon?
When Shohei Ohtani signed the biggest contract ever two years ago, that made perfect sense. When Juan Soto subsequently topped Ohtani last winter, it was at least defensible, with Soto arguably the best player other than Ohtani and Aaron Judge and only 26 years old when he signed the deal.
But for Kyle Tucker to leave those guys in the dust on a luxury tax salary that would be the second-highest cap hit in the NBA or sixth-highest in the NFL is just madness.
Again, he's a very good player.
He ain't that good, though, projected by Steamer for merely the 26th-best fWAR among position players in 2026.
Designated Hitter: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
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Luxury Tax Salary: $35.45M
Steamer Projection: 1.3 fWAR
For a few years, Mike Trout was an injury-prone star who was still elite when healthy. From 2017-22, he missed a combined total of 274 games, but he slugged north of .600 in each of those six seasons. Tack 2015 and 2016 onto there and he had an OPS of at least .990 in eight consecutive years.
Between 2023 and 2024, though, he was an injury-prone player who was still pretty good when healthy. In those 111 games played, he slugged .504 and had an OPS of .860. Nothing to sneeze at, but hardly his "best in the world" days of yore.
And though he was able to play way more in 2025 than had become his norm in recent years, the 33-year-old center fielder-turned-designated hitter took another big step backward, slugging .439 with a .797 OPS. He also struck out at by far the highest rate of his career (32.0 K%).
Needless to say, those aren't Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani numbers. Rather, those are Pavin Smith numbers. And there are five more seasons left on Trout's 12-year deal.
Can he deliver one more vintage year? Or is he simply cursed to end his career having never won a single postseason game?
Ace Pitcher: Corbin Burnes, Arizona Diamondbacks
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Luxury Tax Salary: $32.9M
Steamer Projection: 0.6 fWAR
Corbin Burnes is going to miss most, if not all of the 2026 campaign while recovering from Tommy John surgery performed this past June.
It's a real bummer because he was out to yet another great start, tallying a quality start in seven of the eight appearances prior to the one in which the injury occurred. He had a 2.66 ERA for the year and has a 2.86 ERA since the beginning of 2020. Had it not been for the injury, he wouldn't be on this list.
What's almost hard to believe, though, is that Burnes is (currently) the only one of the game's 34 highest-salaried pitchers in that boat.
Zack Wheeler is working his way back from surgery to address a blood clot and thoracic outlet syndrome, and Gerrit Cole is on the mend from a Tommy John surgery performed three months before Burnes'. However, there's reasonable optimism they'll both be back relatively early in the season, each projected by Steamer for more than 20 starts.
Fingers crossed that this remains the case. The sport is better when all the best players are available.
The Rest of the Starting Rotation
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Yu Darvish, San Diego Padres ($18M)
Corbin Burnes is the only one of the 34 highest-salaried pitchers expected to miss at least half of next season, but you've probably surmised from that oddly specific number that the 35th-highest salaried pitcher is on the shelf. That would be Darvish, who underwent a UCL brace surgery in October and will miss all of 2026. He is signed through 2028, but whether the 39-year-old will return in 2027 is up in the air.
Eduardo Rodriguez, Arizona Diamondbacks ($20M)
E-Rod missed most of 2024 and had an ERA north of 5.00 for the 10 starts he was able to make. He was mostly healthy in 2025, but equally ineffective to the tune of a 5.02 ERA and 1.54 WHIP. Arizona was overly influenced by his great run through 2023, stuck with two more years of what they had hoped might be their ace.
Taijuan Walker, Philadelphia Phillies ($18M)
José Berríos, Toronto Blue Jays ($18.714M)
Where do either of these guys fit in their respective rotations?
Walker will probably start out in the Phillies rotation, but he's the odd man out once Zack Wheeler is healthy and once top prospect Andrew Painter makes his mark. Walker will probably be in a long-relief role by Memorial Day. And while Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Trey Yesavage figure to lock down four of Toronto's spots, Berríos will likely need to battle Eric Lauer, Cody Ponce and Bowden Francis for the fifth one.
Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals ($35M)
If we mentioned Anthony Rendon in the third base section, we better also mention Strasburg here. He retired long ago, but his retained salary still counts at $35M against the Nationals' luxury tax payroll. Even so, they're projected at more than $100M below the competitive balance tax threshold.
An All $11M Bullpen
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We could argue whether the highest-paid relievers such as Edwin Díaz, Josh Hader and Tanner Scott are worth all the money they make. But there are seven relievers with a luxury tax salary of exactly $11M in 2026, most of whom definitely don't feel like top-20 relievers in the game today.
Jeff Hoffman, Toronto Blue Jays: Pitched pretty well in the postseason—to batters not named Miguel Rojas, at any rate—but Hoffman had a disastrous first year at closer for the Blue Jays, racking up a 4.37 ERA and a 4.90 FIP. He was pretty great for those two seasons with the Phillies, but has otherwise struggled throughout his career.
A.J. Minter, New York Mets: Suffered a lat tear in late April and missed the rest of the season. Should be back relatively early in 2026, but let's see how he fares.
Robert Stephenson, Los Angeles Angels: Missed all of 2024. Made it back last season, but only for 10 innings. And prior to a hot few months in 2023, he had been worth 0.0 bWAR through the first seven-plus seasons of his MLB career. Angels took a chance and got burned.
Blake Treinen, Los Angeles Dodgers: 37-year-old had a 5.40 ERA during the regular season and a 6.75 mark during the postseason. One of many bullpen arms that struggled for the champs in 2025.
Luke Weaver, New York Mets: Nowhere near as lights out in 2025 as he was in 2024. And during the Yankees' brief stay in the playoffs, Weaver retired just one of seven batters faced. One of three Mets relievers making at least eight figures, and arguably the most questionable of the bunch.
