Eating Bad Contracts

by drodd on Aug 15, 2011 12:33 PM CDT

There has been a lot of chatter about the Cubs having to eat bad contracts in the past couple of years. On BCB, I read comments about people saying the Cubs should just eat Soriano's contract. The Cubs actually did eat Carlos Silva's contract this year that paid him $11.5M of which $5.5M was paid by Seattle Mariners.

The Cubs are not the only team in baseball that have had to eat bad contracts. In 2006, the Arizona Diamondbacks ate $22 million of Russ Ortiz salary.

I don't know how to research this but I was wondering what MLB team has ate the most bad contracts in the history of the game.

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Not sure who ate the most

but I can say who I feel made the worst deal ever.

NYM and Bobby Bonilla. They’re paying him right now! Sort of a frozen meal to be “eaten” later.

I know this does not exactly follow your premise. Still a very lousy deal, great for BB though.

by Tat14 on Aug 15, 2011 1:20 PM CDT reply actions

I still think Mike Hampton's contract was worse

by jerry morales rules on Aug 15, 2011 1:43 PM CDT up reply actions

The deferred with interest part ofr Bonilla's deal was a killer

They have to pay Bobby Bo almost 1.2 million per year for the next 25 years.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703426004575339013108198050.html

" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "

by aaronb on Aug 15, 2011 1:47 PM CDT up reply actions

Eh, $1.5M per year is not that much to a ball club, especially when you consider the inflation after 25 years.

That, of course, does not make the contract any less stupid on the team’s part.

A DRaysBay and FanGraphs writer from Cubs Stats and Twitter @BradleyWoodrum

by BWoodrum on Aug 15, 2011 1:52 PM CDT up reply actions

Except that the remaining value of Bonilla's contract was only $5.9 million

Basically, they paid him $28+ million over 25 years (starting this year) so that they wouldn’t have to pay him $5.9 million in 2000.

Even with discounting for time, that’s still a horrible contract for the Mets organization. It was a move made by a GM who knew he would be long gone by the time it mattered and wanted the flexibility to get rid of Bonilla and spend immediately.

by SouthernCub on Aug 15, 2011 2:28 PM CDT up reply actions