Bad contracts plentiful in MLB over the past 20 years

TOKYO — Major League Baseball history is filled with examples of bad contracts. Perhaps the worst in history involved former Texas Rangers superstar and 2010 A.L. MVP Josh Hamilton, who led his team to two World Series appearances. He signed a then record five-year, $125 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2013, but failed miserably thanks to a serious alcohol and drug problem and was sent back to Texas two years later in disgrace.

Another candidate for all-time worst deal was again by the Angels when they signed 32-year-old Albert Pujols, the former St. Louis Cardinals star, to a 10-year, $240 million deal, in which he produced a humiliating -1.8 bWAR thereafter.