Investing In Baseball Free Agents Sometimes Backfires In A Big Way

Even when all signs point to a particular player as a logical free-agent target, the baseball gods often have other ideas.

In fact, some of the contracts given veteran players who qualified for free agency with six years of big-league service remain head-scratchers to this day.

Here are 20 of the most obvious examples:

1. Nick Esasky, Braves – Seeking a slugging first baseman, the Braves lured this Atlanta native home with a three-year, $5.7 million package just after the 1989 World Series. It wasn’t worth a dime: Esasky developed vertigo, couldn’t see or hit, and never knocked in a single run before leaving the game. Pursued by his hometown team for years, Esasky was coming off a 30-homer, 108-RBI season with the Boston Red Sox. Only two other American Leaguers had more runs batted in. But returning to the National League, where he started, didn’t help. Esasky was done at age 30.

2. Bobby Bonilla, Mets – When the switch-hitting outfielder signed after the 1992 season, the Mets made him the highest-paid player in the NL (five years, $25 million). Never as good as he’d been in Pittsburgh, Bonilla was a bust in New York, which eventually shipped him to Baltimore – but not before he and Rickey Henderson were reprimanded for playing cards in the clubhouse during a playoff game. The Mets wound up paying him $1 million every July 1 until 2011 – long after his retirment – because some $5.9 million of his deal was deferred.

3. Danny Tartabull, Phillies – He signed for one year and $2 million in 1997, went hitless in three games, and retired. But that was his second free-agent bonanza; the Yankees once lured him from Kansas City with a five-year, $27 million deal that made him the top-paid player in the AL. His best achievement was a guest shot on Seinfeld. Tartabull was traded to Oakland after completing only three years of his Yankee deal.

4. Vince Coleman, Mets – Four years at $11.95 million was a steal, but not for the team that signed this speed merchant. The one-time Rookie of the Year, Coleman was a star in St. Louis who left his luster in the Show Me State. He hit .260 with seven homers for New York, injured teammate Doc Gooden with a golf club, argued in public with mild-mannered manager Jeff Torborg, and hurt three people when he casually tossed a firecracker into a crowd.

5. Bartolo Colon, Angels – After getting a four-year, $51 million deal from the Angels, this rotund right-hander went from Cy Young recipient to sad sack. Over the second half of his deal, he went 7-13 with a 5.90 ERA, taking home a guaranteed $30 million. Amazingly, he lasted another 10 years in the majors.

6. Hideki Irabu, Yankees – As good as he was in Japan, this pitcher was so putrid in pinstripes that fans pronounced his last name “I-rob-you.” Lured to the Bronx with a four-year, $12.8 million contract in 1997, his numbers with the Yankees were 31-25 with a bloated 5.10 earned run average.

7. Albert Belle, White Sox – A prolific slugger for the Cleveland Indians, Belle not only got a five-year, $65 million deal from Chicago in 1999 but a contractural clause that stated he had to be one of the three highest-paid players in the game. When he tried to enforce it, the Sox refused, making him a free agent again, and Baltimore signed him. His anger management issues, coupled with a degenerative hip condition, forced him out of the game at age 33.

8. Mo Vaughn, Angels – A star slugger with the Red Sox, he gave the Angels good production in the first two years of his $80 million contract, signed in1999, but then fell victim to injuries and weight issues. Out for all of 2021, the lumbering first baseman was eventually shipped to the Mets for Kevin Appier, a pitcher who helped the wild-card Angels win their only world championship in 2002. A year later, “Slow Mo” was gone.

9. Andruw Jones, Dodgers – Another slugger kayoed by poor weight control, he never delivered on his two-year, $36.2 million contract, hitting .158 with three homers before drawing his release with the contract half-finished. He later played for the White Sox and Yankees but never reached the former All-Star status he had enjoyed in Atlanta.

10. Wayne Garland, Indians – He picked a great time for the best year of his career, going 20-7 with a 2.67 ERA for the 1977 Orioles. That convinced Cleveland to give him 10 years – then the longest contract in baseball history – for $2.3 million. He lost 19 games the first year, finishing with a 28-48 record and 4.50 ERA before Cleveland cut its losses halfway through the contract. Garland is now the poster boy for the foolishness of foisting long-term contracts on pitchers.

11. Mike Hampton, Rockies – Desperate for pitching, as they always are, the Colorado Rockies gave this lefty what was then the biggest contract in baseball history: eight years and $121 million. In his first year in Denver, Hampton went 14-13 but had a fat 5.41 ERA thanks to Coors Field’s notorious thin air. Traded to the Braves in 2003, he had several solid seasons on terra firma before fighting off injuries that idled him for two full seasons.

12. John Lackey, Red Sox — A stalwart starter for seven seasons with the Angels, this right-hander never justified his five-year, $82.5 million contract, signed in 2010. After winning 14 times in his first Fenway season, he he posted a 6.41 ERA a year later and then missed a season (2012) after Tommy John elbow surgery. Boston traded him to the Cardinals at the 2014 trade deadline — before he could test free agency again. He then had three solid seasons with the Cards and Cubs before ending his 15-year tenure in the majors.

13. Greg Vaughn, Rays – Notorious for not delving into the free agent market, the Tampa Bay Rays surprised by giving this slugger four years at $34 million in 2000. He never came close to replicating the 45-homer, 118-RBI season he had enjoyed with Cincinnati the year before. By the third year of his contract, Vaughn was running on fumes. After hitting .163 with eight homers and 13 RBI, Tampa Bay wisely cut him before he could do any more damage.

14. Juan Gonzalez, Rangers – In giving Gonzalez two years for $24 million in 2002, Texas must have been thinking about the two MVP awards he had won during his first stint with the club. But the once-impressive power stroke was gone, thanks in part to a myriad of injuries. He completed his contract by playing in 152 games over two seasons as his steady decline started.

15. Richie Sexson, Mariners – Another slugger cut by a dissatisfied ballclub, he got four years and $50 million from Seattle in 2005 but fell apart in the third and fourth years of his deal. He hit .205 in his third year with the M’s and fell to .218 a year later before drawing his walking papers. The towering first baseman, once a feared slugger in Milwaukee, tried to keep his career alive but didn’t show the Yankees much late in 2008.

16. Jeff Blauser, Cubs – With the Braves, this shortstop was a fine all-around player. Not so with the Cubs, who gave him a two-year, $8.2 million pact in 1998. Blauser rewarded them with averages of .219 and .240, respectively, and had a two-year total of 13 homers despite playing half his games in the cozy confines of Wrigley Field.

17. Derek Bell, Pirates – Once a member of Houston’s “Killer Bees,” Bell was a bust in Pittsburgh despite a two-year, $9.5 million deal, signed in 2001. Beset by injuries and potent pitching in 2001, he didn’t even reach the Mendoza Line, finishing at .173 with five homers. When he objected to competing for a starting job a year later, the Pirates released him – ending his major-league tenure.

18. Todd Hundley, Cubs – Remembering how well his father Randy had played for the team, Chicago eagerly inked this slugging catcher to a four-year, $23.5 million deal in 2001. After he responded with a .187 batting average, the Cubs convinced the Dodgers to take the strikeout-prone backstop in trade for Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek. With the contract still in force, Hundley hit only .198 with 30 homers in four years.

19. Alfonso Soriano, Cubs – After producing a rare 40/40 season with the Nationals (46 homers, 41 steals), Chicago rolled out an eight-year, $136 million deal that made Soriano one of the top-paid players in the game after the 2007 season. Injuries and advancing athletic age intervened, however, and he never again approached his 40/40 form. During the seventh season of his deal, the Cubs happily sent him to the Yankees for a minor-league pitcher. A year later, he was done.

20 (tie). Carl Pavano and Kei Igawa, Yankees – A star with the Marlins, Pavano was pathetic in New York, never coming close to justifying his four-year, $39.95 million contract, signed in 2005. His elbow began barking almost immediately, limiting him to nine starts over two seasons in 2007 and 2008 and a 9-8 record and 5.00 ERA in 26 starts over the life of the ill-fated contract. Igawa, inked in 2007, wasn’t much better after getting a five-year, $20 million deal (the Yankees also paid a $26 million posting fee to his Japanese team). He went 2-4 with a 6.66 ERA before drawing his release with three years to go on his contract. As an added insult to Yankee fans, George Steinbrenner referred to the left-handed Igawa as “the Fat Toad.”

In fact, multiple players on this list could have qualified for that dubious nickname.