worst ever free agent signings

[dickay]

you cant compare... zito is 2 years into his deal he still has 5/7ths of the deal left.. if 2 years into the pavano deal he was hurt then the last 2 years he won 18-22 games each there would be no way you could say it. you have to wait AT LEAST until the end

I disagree.

I almost posted a response to houstons quote earlier regarding something similar, but didn't want a controversy because I agree with the thought behind his and your post here, but its case by case. I think Zito's contract, although incomplete, can and should be included in this discussion. We can all agree I think with strong confidence that Zito is not much better than what he has performed. Now he could go out and win the Cy Young next year, in which case yes I'm wrong, but I feel with strong confidence that he just ain't that good. I think that is fair.

Couple that with what I said earlier, that it was a bad deal from the beginning because most of baseball thought he was greatly overrated and they paid far more than anyone else was offering.

So yes, I guess its going out on a limb that he will continue to be a poor contributer.....but thats a bet I'd be willing to make. And if he doesn't show marketable improvement over his contract....then hands down I feel he's a worse signing than Hampton, because at least Hampton was highly pursued and many felt was a can't miss.

[HoustonGM]

I almost posted a response to houstons quote earlier regarding something similar, but didn't want a controversy because I agree with the thought behind his and your post here, but its case by case.

Yeah, my post you're referring to was sparked by the statement about including A-Rod's deal in this type of discussion. You can't fully evaluate deals until they are at or near completion, but you can make educated "guesses" about how a contract will turn out.

Like you said, the chances are great that Zito's contract is going to turn out to be a disaster. It's been a disaster so far, and while we can't say for sure that the contract will be horrible upon its completion, it's pretty damned sure that it will. Like I said in my above post, it was a bad from the start.

A-Rod, though, is a whole different case. He's clearly worth the money currently (unlike Zito), he's an all-time great player (unlike Zito), he's the type of player that usually ages extremely well (unlike Zito), etc. It's WAY too early to make any judgment about whether or not his contract will turn out poorly, but, just like it's safe to assume that Zito's deal will be horrendous, it's a good guess that A-Rod's deal will likely be perfectly fine.

[TheNamelessPoet]

both good points. Hampton WAS persued by many teams... Zito was but not even CLOSE to that contract

[gRYFYN1]

I will take this as the worst deal signed that I can remember (although the Renteria deal with the Sox was bad - especially when they traded him to the Braves picked up the cost & he played like as AS!)

Well if your bringing up Renteria to that may as well Add Lugo to the list, the played horrible for 1 1/2 years and has 2 full years left a 8M ish, and if Lowrie plays anywhere near as good next year Lugo won't sniff the field.

[TheNamelessPoet]

Well if your bringing up Renteria to that may as well Add Lugo to the list, the played horrible for 1 1/2 years and has 2 full years left a 8M ish, and if Lowrie plays anywhere near as good next year Lugo won't sniff the field.

thats true... man what happened to lugo

[FRENCHREDSOX]

Well if your bringing up Renteria to that may as well Add Lugo to the list, the played horrible for 1 1/2 years and has 2 full years left a 8M ish, and if Lowrie plays anywhere near as good next year Lugo won't sniff the field.

The thing is Lugo is still (for now) a Red Sox whereas Renteria went to the Braves & PLAYED well for them & was paid integrally by the Sox....also as said elsewhere Lugo has been average but could rebound....

Renteria was a bust as a Red Sox,no hindsight just a testimony to what he did as a Sox & return on the investment.

[FRENCHREDSOX]

Transactions 
June 4, 1990: Drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 6th round of the 1990 amateur draft. Player signed June 4, 1990. 

December 10, 1993: Traded by the Seattle Mariners with Mike Felder to the Houston Astros for Eric Anthony. 

December 23, 1999: Traded by the Houston Astros with Derek Bell to the New York Mets for Roger Cedeno, Octavio Dotel, and Kyle Kessel (minors). 

November 4, 2000: Granted Free Agency. 

December 12, 2000: Signed as a Free Agent with the Colorado Rockies. 

November 16, 2002: Traded by the Colorado Rockies with Juan Pierre and cash to the Florida Marlins for Charles Johnson, Preston Wilson, Vic Darensbourg, and Pablo Ozuna. 

November 18, 2002: Traded by the Florida Marlins with cash to the Atlanta Braves for Tim Spooneybarger and Ryan Baker (minors). 


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The transaction information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Last transaction is September 30, 2007.  
 Salaries Leaders
1993 Seattle Mariners $109,000 
1994 Houston Astros $129,000 
1995 Houston Astros $135,000 
1996 Houston Astros $275,000 
1997 Houston Astros $1,420,000 
1998 Houston Astros $2,250,000 
1999 Houston Astros $4,125,000 
2000 New York Mets $5,750,000 
2001 Colorado Rockies $10,500,000 
2002 Colorado Rockies $9,503,543 
2003 Atlanta Braves $13,625,000 
2004 Atlanta Braves $14,625,000 
2005 Atlanta Braves $15,125,000 
2006 Atlanta Braves $14,503,543 
2007 Atlanta Braves $14,500,000 
Career (may be incomplete) $106,575,086

the BEST part of th whole thing... FLORIDA made out like bandits!!!... they traded I THINK 35-40 million in total contracts and got Hampton.

then flipped him 1 MONTH in the OfFSEASON to atlanta and got 2 prospects and only paid 23.5 Million PLUS never had to face him really in a division rival's uniform lol.

so... SOMEONE made out in the Hampton deal... t00 the tune of at least 15 million!!!

based on this.. it saved COLORADO 30 million and FLA 23 Million... and had he not been hurt... it would have ben an AWESOME deal for atlanta... what 4 year about 45-50 million for a former 20 game winner. its almost hard to say it was bad for anyone except ATLANTA... alto the $$4 Hampton was paid for his 6+ era was pretty bad lol.

Atlanta paid Way less actually -

They will pay him $2 million in 2003, $2 million in 2004, $1.5 million in '05, $13.5 million in '06, $14.5 million in '07 and $15 million in '08.

the rest being paid by the Rockies & Marlins (Marlins paying 30 million but removing the 52 million owed to Wilson & Johnson who went to Denver) - so it cost them 48.5 million for 6 seasons or in other terms 1.386 million per win as a Brave,Zito has cost 0.857 million per win (21 wins - 2 year salary 24.5 million)