Boy, what a task this was! There have been so many dollars and little sense thrown around in baseball in the last 25 years, it was difficult to narrow it all down to just 25!
But after numerous hours of research and head-scratching, I present to you all the 25 Worst Free Agent Signings in the Last 25 Years.
Disclaimer: This list is based on a combination of money spent for the player, the production that ensued (or didn’t), and whether the entire contract was picked up by the team (some players that were traded had their contracts forwarded to another team, thus taking a little sting out of the burden the original team had to carry).
In short, how much the player hurt the organization was the main determinant.
You may realize Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Brown aren’t on this list, despite their giant contracts. This is because they were largely dominant during the extent of their contracts (Brown had some injury problems, but in four of the five years he was with LA he had a 3.00 ERA or lower-his last two years were picked up by the Yankees when he was traded).