MLB Rumors - MLB Trade Rumors
Subscribe to MLB Trade Rumors using RSS
Home     Contact     About     Advertise     Archives     Widget     Twitter      RSS Usage

« Odds & Ends: Orioles, White Sox, Nady, Indians | Main | Glaus Could Appeal To Teams At First Or DH »

Discussion: Which Contract Would You Get Rid Of?

In his Hardball column yesterday, Joel Sherman of the New York Post says that MLB should allow a "one-time, one-contract reprieve for all 30 teams." Similar to what the NBA did in 2005, Sherman basically says each team should be allowed to rid themselves of one contract, with MLB's central fund absorbing the money owed to the players. Those 30 players would then become free agents.

My question to you is this: which contract would you like to see your favorite team get rid of? Some are fairly obvious (coughTravisHafnerBarryZitocough), but others not so much. Let's see what you got.


Full Story |  Comments (219) | Categories:

Comments

Carlos Silva is on an awful contract with the M's. Something like 4 yrs, 44 mil. Yuck!

As a Yankees fan, I guess I would have to say A-Rod. I love A-Rod, I'm a huge A-Rod fan and supporter, however hip surgery and he's owed a boatload (multiple boatloads) of money over the next 9 years. Another option would be Damaso Marte, but he's not owed as much as A-Rod.

Oliver Perez

as a sox fan i would get rid of lugo

Carlos Silva for sure

i don't think i have to explain myself

lol. obviously, Zito and then Rowand. Then Bruce Bochy's.

For the Red Sox, Julio Lugo, since he will soon be third on the shortstop depth chart and is making $9 million a year.

Julio Lugo.

Please Vernon Wells!

JULIO LUGO IN A SECOND!!

Another vote for Lugo, then JD Drew. And if we were to consider the posting fee (not applicable to this exercise) then Matsuzaka places a close third.

Oh God -- I'm with you on Carlos Silva. I was relieved to see him put on the DL. That's sad.

I would have to say Barry Zito. Aaron Rowand's is bad, but at least he is playing at least close to his salary this season.

Kosuke Fukudome 12 mill playing like 2 mill.

Andruw Jones! The Dodgers owe way too much money for that SOB.

I'm trying to think of this as an O's fan, and I really don't think we have that horrible of a contract on the roster. I mean, sure Danys Baez is making $7.167MM, and Melvin Mora is making $8MM, but they both come off the books at the end of the year (assuming Mora doesn't have his option exercised).

If you're forced to get rid of somebody, I'd say Mora, just because he's pretty much worthless when it comes to trade value, where as Baez is going to bring a return of one or two prospects.

Honorable mention for Koji Uehara because they're essentially paying him $5MM each year for the next two years when he's probably going to end up as a long reliever. But, he represents a gateway to the Far East (or so we've been told) so the PR hit would be quite bad.

Seconding Vernon Wells for the Jays, he's due $98.5M in salary from now through 2014, with a full NTC, plus an additional $8.5M portion of his signing bonus is payable in 2010. I'd think Toronto would be pretty eager to get rid of his contract if they could.

Padres - Short-term, I want Giles out of here, but I think Chris Young's contract is worse. 2 years left at about $12M? No thanks...he's maddeningly inconsistent and injury prone. I love the guy, but I'm tired of watching this song and dance.

Hrm... Alfonso Soriano (kinda good player, stupid large/long deal) or Milton Bradley (mid-sized deal, plus-sized headache)....

Hrm.

Gary Matthews Jr. 50 Million/ 5 Years.

Undoutably, the Jays would have to get rid of Wells. It would be so awesome if the MLB did that!!!

Austin Kearns, worst player ever

Michael Young Rangers

Dontrelle Willis and Nate Robertson are horrible and shouldn't even be in a minor league uniform let alone a major league one.

ya true dontrelle willis was pretty darn bad....

carl pavano?

Lugo or Drew for Red Sox

Julio Lugo, in a heart beat, but only if it were back in 07

kei igwai. whoa... 'nuff said

its to bad selig is such a conservative baseball candy ass and doesnt believe in changing anything, this would be amazing!

That's easy Alfonso Soriano. Can't hit, catch, field or run the bases! And only wants to bat lead-off.

I'd go with Eric Chavez. He's gonna retire and he makes 11 mil a year. The A's need to spend the money on someone that plays.

Milton Bradley looks pretty bad. He has all these nagging injuries and I'm not sold he can play the field every day.

Zito, Rowand, Pierre (even though he's playing well now he's not worth that contract)

the reason is teams would abuse the system, for ex. give an aging player a long term contract then void it once he starts to slide, im a sox fan so i kinda like watching the yanks make stupid signings....

Eric Byrnes.

Can any club beat this for bad deals:
Sheffield: 14 mil in 2009 to play for the Mets (and they can have him)
Ordonez, just release him so his 33 million in options for the next two years doesn't vest
Guillen, $ 13 million a year for 2010 and 2011, 10 mil for 09
Robertson, 17 mil for 09 and 2010
Willis, $ 22 mil for '09 and 2010
Bonderman, $ 25 mil for 09 and 2010
71.1 mil for '09, 65.5 mil for 2010

Currently Scott Linebrink. 4 years/25 mil. I would save it for another year, though.

I don't think JD Drew merits dumping. He gets hurt a lot but save for his first season, he's been a very productive hitter. He is overpaid, but so are most major leaguers.

Lugo or Drew for Red Sox


I'm just not sure Lugo
is carrying enough dough
to get the best bang for the
buck...

I say Drew or Dice K...

Carlos Lee, 6 years/ 100 mil?

All of the Astros money is locked up on three players.

luis castillo
not only is he crap
but his contract also didnt allow us to sign the o dog this past offseason

For the Reds

Dusty Baker. I think he's cost the Reds at least five games this year if not more.

Kei Igawa, worst contract on the yanks by far.

Kenshin Kawakami. Last year it was Mike Hampton. If not Kawakami, then maybe Garret Anderson or Jeff Francoeur

If you get Julio Lugo off my team you will have convinced me religion is not a sham and that there is really a god

Garrett Anderson. 2.5 MIL for 1 year isn't too much, but signing him was a big mistake. Not sure if that would be enough for the Braves to go after anyone else though.

Jason Schmidt. Easy.

JEFF SUPPAN and his terrible contract number 1 starter money for a number 5/long reliever at best.

I hate to go against the grain of Red Sox fandom here, but the Sox can afford to just part ways with Julio Lugo right now. With J.D and Dice-K each owed $28 million after this year (J.D. over 2 years, Dice-K over 3) my preference would be to get out from under Dice-K...unless they could coax him into a trade to a team with a pitcher friendly ballpark (like San Diego or Seattle).

Carlos Silva.
End of story.

dice k has a ntc and just give him the rest of the year off come back freash next year.....he has 38 wins last 2 yrs, not the worst signing

Retroactively, Andruw Jones. The 21owed to Jones far surpasses what's owed to Schmidt and/or Pierre.

If I were in charge of any team, how's about Gary Mathews Jr.

"Carlos Lee, 6 years/ 100 mil?

All of the Astros money is locked up on three players."


I believe you mean 4 players (Lee, Oswalt, Berkman, and Tejada), but it is more that Drayton doesn't want to spend, as compared to the Astros not having the money.

I would cut Kaz's sorry butt.

g.m.j is a bad contract for a 4th outfielder.....still going with zito and pavano

carlos lee
kaz matsui
and cecil cooper

Kei Igawa!

I think all M's fans can unanimously agree on dumping a certain oversized pile of crap otherwise known as Carlos Silva.
Please keep him on the DL for as long as possible; any day without Silva on the mound is a good day...

Bill Hall, too much for no offense....or Jeff Suppan, too much for a 5 starter

I gotta disagree, Angel.

Drew is raking in $14-15M a season through 2011. Injuries should be part of the consideration. His numbers aren't just mediocre, they're outright replaceable. Lumping in this season's 60 ABs, Drew (over two seasons) looks like this:

HRs - 19.5
RBIs - 80
H - 140
SBs - 5
AVE - .271
OBP - .388
OPS - .857

Were it not for his playoff heriocs, Lugo's contract and Drew's ability to take a walk, he'd be the subject of daily WEEI fodder.

Vernon Wells ....

one of the worst contracts out there

"I don't think JD Drew merits dumping. He gets hurt a lot but save for his first season, he's been a very productive hitter. He is overpaid, but so are most major leaguers."

Agreed. I like having Drew. He hits well overall, draws a ton of walks and plays incredibly underrated defense. He also keeps his mouth shut. I really like Drew.

Dice-K. The posting fee alone could sign most of our '09 draft picks. Horrible, horrible signing given his track record in MLB. Hopefully, his signing educates MLB execs that NPL signings are equivalent to Triple A free agents and nothing more.

You can eat Lugo and Drew is moderately productive.

Scott Proctor for the Marlins... it's hard to complain when you're payroll is as low as ours, but he's the 2nd or 3rd highest paid player on the team and won't play an inning under the contract...

"The posting fee alone could sign most of our '09 draft picks."

$51M could sign all of Boston's draft picks for the next five or six drafts.

Carlos Lee! Who in their right mind gives out that kind of money to a guy who doesnt even run out ground balls?!

Id click my heels together three times and say Gary Matthews, Gary Matthews, Gary Matthew" And the contract would be gone.

As an Orioles fan, Chris Ray. He was a closer, now we have George Sherrill. Then he was a set up man, now we have Jim Johnson. He never comes out of the bullpen and slips in and out of Triple A since coming off Tommy John surgery. Get rid of his contract and sign a young third baseman.

Igawa, Silva, Lugo, and Jake Westbrook, the guy has been mediocre his whole career!

I think thats a ridiculous idea... you dish out the money, you pay for it.. no "oops!" contracts..

that reminds me of school when teachers say they would drop your lowest grade of the marking period.

Best Contract, Adam Dunn 8 Mil this season and 12 Mil next season!

Silva was moved to the 60 day DL. I would LOVE to get rid of Silva, but it seems that Z will play the talent and not the contract, which makes Wakamatsu's job 100% easier. I think the worst contract in baseball is #1 A-Rod because he's really only worth about $12MM with the PR nightmare he comes with. #2 goes to another Yankee, Burnett is injury prone, over-paid, and he is a league average pitcher... If it wasn't for his WS championship, he'd probably only be worth $7MM per season, but they pay him based on his success, not on his numbers... It's for the same reason Bedard will re-sign with Seattle for about $60MM/5 years. I'd even pay the difference of the contracts and take a Carlos Silva for Dontrelle Willis deal straight up. Willis still is struggling and Silva dominates the AL Central. The best would be for the league to eat the Silva deal and to be honest, they should impose a penalty for eating the bad deal, like one less premium player in the following free agent signing period. Like ditch Silva and you can draft 1 less type A or type B player in the following offseason. Keep teams like Detroit and NYY from signing stupid deals and asking the league to bail them out.

A-Rod is worth his contract and money is nothing to worry about for the Yankees.

AJ Burnett, though. Man. It's the years and not the dollar signs.

For my own team him, but I really feel bad for M's fans with that Carlos Silva contract. Vernon Wells is up there too, that's going to get really really ugly in the years to come.

Also MLB would never do this because the player's union would immediately kill it. If it were to go into effect in some fantasy world., I'd say every team gets to use it once a decade, and maybe teams could be punished by having the ability taken away for that decade.

"The posting fee alone could sign most of our '09 draft picks."

$51M could sign all of Boston's draft picks for the next five or six drafts.

Good point.

Clearly not to the same scale as a Carlos Silva, Barry Zito, etc. deal... but even if it's only two years, $9MM for Nick Punto is an absolutely pathetic joke.

Bill Smith should be run out of town, and Ron Gardenhire should be slapped upside the head for lobbying to get his best friend on the team re-signed when the Twins already had plenty of offensively inept, switch-hitting, speedy shortstops around (see: Matt Tolbert).

What is with people saying Kei Igawa???? Yes he is terrible and will probably never see the major leagues again but he is only owed 4 million. A-Rod makes that in a month.

As much as I love Todd Helton, that contract is an absolute killer. Wish the Rockies could get rid of that contract, and sign him to something more reasonable and shorter.

Oh, and the Yankees are going to be regretting A-Rod's contract in the next 2-3 years, if not now.

I'm actually convinced looking at some peripheral numbers that Drew's is a contract I can live with given his BBs, defense, humble attitude and the Sox' lack of OF prospects. Y'all helped convince me.

Still, the contract isn't great. In a crude exercise, I quickly ran the average salaries of RFs in MLB, ranked by OPS, to see where Drew (ranked 9th) resides. Of the top 8, 2009 salary averages to $4,780,000. Of the 8 RFs following Drew it comes to $3,129,250.

For perspective, Drew will earn $14,000,000.

chicago white sox.
Scott Linebrink rhp
4 years/$19M (2008-11)

soriano. that contract really prevents them from bringing in solid players at the deadline for the next few years.

CARDINALS: Troy Glaus 4 YR/ 45 Million....man we could get someone good with that!

Zito is also further proof that Sabean is the worst GM in baseball.

Most definitely Lugo.

My #1 choice in baseball overall would be Zito. Seriously, that contract was a bad, bad idea. Too much money, not worthy of the performance. He's getting around 2 mil/win at the moment, surely the Giants would be better off with 18 mil worth of offense instead! (even if 14 mil of that went to JD Drew!)

Not sure why Eric Chavez isn't high on the list. He made 11M this year going 3 for 30. He will make another 14M or so if he never plays again, which he won't. At least with the other bad contracts, the player still has a chance to contribute (Wells, Zito, Silva, Matthews Jr.).

Plus, if this happened in the NBA recently, it was because they have a salary cap. MLB would never do this, since it would be rewarding the teams making the biggest mistakes, while teams like Florida and TB get penalized for making sound decisions.

The two biggest wastes O. Perez and B Zito. Those guys are useless. They should be restocking shelves in a grocery store.

Billy Wagner deffiently deserves a mention. $10 million for about 1 month of pitching this year. Even when he does play you cannot count on him to get a big save. Omar could use that $10 million on a bat and a relief pitcher.

"while teams like Florida and TB get penalized for making sound decisions."

What? It's not like they're being forced into being cheap. If they want to spend money they can, but don't make excuses for something they can already do.

Fat chance trying to get back that posting fee from Seibu. I think the best you can do is get the 30 mil or so left out of Daisuke's contract.

Personally I'd get rid of Lugo. I have no hope of Lugo doing anything for the Red Sox. I have some hope of Daisuke being decent coming back from the dl.

Fat chance trying to get back that posting fee from Seibu. I think the best you can do is get the 30 mil or so left out of Daisuke's contract.

Personally I'd get rid of Lugo. I have no hope of Lugo doing anything for the Red Sox. I have some hope of Daisuke being decent coming back from the dl.

Cardinals

Ya, Glaus for sure. Thanks for deciding to get your shoulder fixed right before the start of the season

Also, Pineiro...He's been okay this season but 7.5 mill? No thanks.

And I wouldn't mind having the 1 mill back from Matt Clement and Juan Gonzalez from last year's failed experiment.

"while teams like Florida and TB get penalized for making sound decisions."

What? It's not like they're being forced into being cheap. If they want to spend money they can, but don't make excuses for something they can already do.

Classic overreaction missing the point.

""while teams like Florida and TB get penalized for making sound decisions."

What? It's not like they're being forced into being cheap. If they want to spend money they can, but don't make excuses for something they can already do.

Classic overreaction missing the point. "

You used the word penalized, don't try to turn this around on me, Mr. Strawman.

If 25 teams get rewarded for bad contracts, 5 teams get penalized for not having a bad contract.

How about 3?

In order -
soriano
bradley
fukudome

GARY.

MATTHEWS.

JR.

As a Mets fan I would like to get rid of either Castillo or Perez contract. We could/should have Lowe & Hudson in those spots instead. Stupid Minaya

"As a Mets fan I would like to get rid of either Castillo or Perez contract. We could/should have Lowe & Hudson in those spots instead. Stupid Minaya"

I'd like Hudson b/c of his personality but look at Lowe's numbers. His BB/9 are up and his K/9 and K/BB are down. While it's not a full season, he's definitely declining. The Braves could be dying to get rid of him as early as next year. The only way the Mets would have gotten him would have been to give him 5 years and that'd have been a huge mistake.

Red Sox get rid of Julio (Useless) Lugo but the overall worst contract is Zito. What were the Giants thinking?

As a Braves fan there are two guys I want gone immediately, and thought we never should have signed: Kenshin Kawakami and Garrett "lollygag" Anderson. KK's contract is much worse though, so he's easily the guy I want to see dumped. That 8 mil would be more than enough for the Bravos to go out and get the big impact bat they desperately need (McLouth deal was absurd. Fallout pissed off everyone on both sides of the board while snubbing one of our legends and doing jack $#!+ to shore up the offense).

For baseball in general though, aside from the blindingly obvious, Eric Byrnes from Arizona straight-up. And if it were possible to void the contract retroactively, including undoing the salary-dump move made to make the signing in the first place, Milton Bradley hands down. He's a headcase who can't stay healthy, field, or hit, and the Cubs are sorely missing Mark DeRosa's solid if unspectacular performance and defensive versatility. Worst offseason move in baseball aside from the ridiculous money tossed around by the Yankee$.

1 2 3 Next »

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment


Top Stories



Search MLBTR

Lijit Search

MLBTR Features



Recent Posts


MLBTR Mailing List

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Rumors By Team



Monthly Archives


Live Chats


Tuesdays at 2 p.m. CST



Site Map     Contact     About     Advertise     Privacy Policy     Widget     Twitter     Rss Feed


MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com.