15 worst Los Angeles Angels free agent signings in franchise history

The Los Angeles Angels are often the butt of the joke when the discussion is about bad contracts. When talking about some of the worst in baseball history you can think of at least a couple of them that the Angels are responsible for.

One of these is the Vernon Wells contract they took on when trading Mike Napoli to Toronto. Wells was an absolute disaster as an Angel.

Arte Moreno has been willing to spend the money necessary to make a splash. Most of the money he has spent on these massive contracts has gone to waste.

This offseason, the Angels stayed away from the star players and brought in respectable veterans. While it's good to build at least more of a complete team than they have in the past, the Halos shouldn't just avoid star players forever.

Shohei Ohtani is hitting free agency this offseason. Will the Angels pay to keep him? If they do retain their superstar, how will that contract age? Most very lengthy contracts end up aging extremely poorly. Even some of the one-year deals the Angels have made in recent memory have been shockingly awful. Let's look into some of the worst free agent signings the franchise has ever made.

Honorable Mention: Jesse Chavez: One Year, $5.75 million, 2016

The Angels signed Jesse Chavez in the 2016 offseason to a one-year deal. They were looking for a pitcher who had experience in the rotation and as a reliever, so Chavez made a lot of sense. He made 62 appearances the season prior, splitting time with the Blue Jays and Dodgers.

Chavez opened the year in the rotation for the Angels but had a 5.24 ERA in 21 starts and was bumped from the rotation in late July. He finished the season in the bullpen and was even worse, posting a 5.84 ERA in 17 appearances out of the bullpen.

To make matters worse, Chavez excelled in 2018 pitching for the Rangers and Cubs. The same thing even happened AGAIN when the Angels acquired Chavez in the Raisel Iglesias trade. He excelled before and after coming to Anaheim.