I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but chances are that your favorite baseball team might have a bust—or two—sitting on its roster heading into the 2015 season.
We aren’t talking about these players being busts in the sense that they won’t put up some quality numbers and prove to be valuable additions to their new clubs. Rather, we’re talking about them as busts in terms of failing to meet the expectations—often unrealistic—that follow them into the new year.
Some of those expectations are based on past performance, while others are completely based on the lucrative multiyear contract that a particular player signed this winter. And some players made the cut due to circumstances that, quite frankly, are completely out of their control.
For our purposes, we’ll focus on players who are going to make their debut with a new team in 2015 only, taking players who overachieved in 2014 but remain with the same club, like the Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve, out of the mix.
Who is destined to not live up to the hype in 2015? Let’s take a look.