LA Angels: Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the American League West right now

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When thinking about the worst contracts in the AL West, the Los Angeles Angels come up in the conversation. The Angels have a poor history of handing out lengthy and expensive contracts to older position players that don't pan out well.

Some of the franchise's ugliest contracts like the Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, and Vernon Wells deals to name a few are no longer on the books, but the Angels still have their fair share of the worst deals in the division.

While the Athletics don't spend much on payroll, four of the five teams attempted to win in 2023. Doing so gave the division some of the worst contracts in the game. Here're the ten worst in what's been one of the more competitive divisions in baseball this season.

10) Worst contracts in the AL West: Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels

When Mike Trout signed his 12-year $426.5 million deal prior to the 2019 season, the deal ending in some sort of decline was inevitable. Trout was committing the rest of his career to the Angels, and no matter how much we wanted it, Trout was never going to be the same MVP-caliber player throughout the entire duration of the deal.

Unfortunately, injuries have caught up to Trout and the decline has started to appear as well, in the last couple of years. Trout is still an elite player, but the contract is one that looks pretty bad right now.

One reason the deal looks bad is because of Trout's declining play. He's still good, but is slashing .267/.367/.490 with 18 home runs and 44 RBI in the 82 games he's played this season. His .858 OPS and 130 OPS+ would be the worst marks of his career by far, and the eye test confirms that he's taken a step back.

The main reason this contract is bad, is the lack of durability. Trout has played in 237 of the possible 454 games he's been able to play in since 2020. He's barely over 50% in that span, which is obviously not what you want. This season, Trout stayed healthy for most of the first half but suffered a hamate fracture just before the all-star break. He missed a month and a half with the injury, and came back for one game before going back on the IL.

Trout hasn't done much to inspire confidence that he'll be able to sustain playing through a full 162-game season, and that makes the contract hard to justify. The great player he is making this contract only the tenth-worst in the AL West, but if things get worse he will only get higher on the list.

9) Worst contracts in the AL West: Tyler Anderson of the Los Angeles Angels

The Angels brought Tyler Anderson in this past offseason to try and add a veteran innings eater to a young and solid rotation. The young pitchers have turned out to regress, while Anderson has been nothing short of a disaster.

Coming off of a career year with the Dodgers last season, Anderson has a 5.35 ERA in 23 appearances (21 starts). His walk rate has ballooned from an elite 4.8% last season to 9.9% this season. For a pitcher who pitches to contact, that's very bad.

Among pitchers with at least 110 innings pitched, Anderson has the seventh-highest ERA in the majors. He went from tenth lowest last season to seventh highest. Just unfathomable. Nobody expected him to be an all-star again, but he was brought in to be a solid mid-rotation arm. He hasn't pitched like a guy who belongs in a rotation.

His contract is still affordable if he can pitch like the guy he was brought in to be next season, but the 33-year-old is making $13 million next season and the year after. If he's this bad again, the contract will remain a disaster.

8) Worst contracts in the AL West: Aledmys Diaz of the Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are a team that gives the impression that they're just not trying until they move out of Oakland. They're one of the worst teams I've ever seen, and have a roster full of unrecognizable names.

One name most Angels fans remember from his days with the Astros is Aledmys Diaz. The A's brought Diaz in on a two-year deal this past offseason. He's making the most money out of anyone on the team at $14 million total over the two years. He hasn't done much as their highest-paid player.

The 33-year-old is slashing .223/.282/.326 with four home runs and 22 RBI in 89 games. He's versatile which is good, but has provided little else for the lowly A's. Among hitters with at least 250 plate appearances, Diaz is the 16th-worst hitter with a 70 WRC+ on the season.

Diaz is only set to make $8 million next year which isn't a crazy amount, but he'll be one of, if not the highest-paid Athletic while being a -0.5 fWAR player this season. Not great from a guy they expect to be one of their best players.

7) Worst contracts in the AL West: Lance McCullers Jr. of the Houston Astros

It feels like the Astros haven't done much of anything wrong in the last decade. Their two World Series rings since 2017 back that claim up. However, even the best teams aren't perfect. We're learning the Astros are less than perfect as the Lance McCullers Jr. contract isn't looking so great.

The Astros extended McCullers Jr. prior to the 2021 season expecting him to fit in as a key piece of their rotation for years to come. The deal was for five years and $85 million and was set to begin in the 2022 season.

McCullers Jr. missed most of the 2022 season due to injury, but finished the year on the roster and pitched well. He even pitched decently in two of his three postseason starts. This season, however, has been riddled with more injury issues.

McCullers Jr. was on the shelf to begin the season before he underwent Flexor Tendon surgery to remove a bone spur from his right forearm. This sidelined him for the remainder of this season, and will likely miss part of next season as well.

Since the extension kicked in, the right-hander has made eight regular season starts and three postseason starts over two seasons. That's not what Houston envisioned. These aren't his first injuries, as McCullers has never started more than 28 games in a season, and has gone over 130 innings just once in a single season over the course of his career.

McCullers Jr. is set to make $17 million for each of the next three seasons. Houston will hope he can start to string together a couple of healthy seasons to salvage the contract.

6) Worst contracts in the AL West: Jose Abreu of the Houston Astros

Heading into the 2023 season, it felt like Jose Abreu was a perfect fit for this Astros team. Their weakest spot position-player wise last season was first base with Yuli Gurriel having a down year, and bringing in a former MVP in Abreu felt like a very easy decision.

Sure, he had seen a bit of a power decline in his final year with the White Sox, but going to the Crawford Boxes in Houston felt like the perfect recipe for the right-handed hitting Abreu to get right back to being a 25-30 home run hitter.

Abreu signed a three-year deal worth $58.5 million. It felt like a lot of money and more importantly a lot of term for a 36-year-old first baseman, but Houston had filled their biggest hole. Or so we thought.

Abreu has struggled mightily in his first season as an Astro, slashing .232/.288/.341 with 10 home runs and 57 RBI. His 73 WRC+ ranks last among 23 qualified first basemen. His -1.3 fWAR is also dead last among that group of first basemen. Even the Angels have a higher WRC+ out of their first basemen (90 WRC+ - 25th in MLB) than the Astros do (73 WRC+ - 29th in MLB). They even have a higher fWAR (1.4 fWAR - 16th in MLB vs. -1.3 fWAR - 29th in MLB).

The Astros are set to pay Abreu $19.5 million next year and the year after that. Considering the fact that he'll be 37 and 38 in those seasons, I wouldn't expect much better production than they're getting now.

5) Worst contracts in the AL West: Robbie Ray of the Seattle Mariners

Prior to the 2022 season, the Mariners inked reigning AL Cy Young award winner Robbie Ray on a huge deal to try and anchor their rotation. Ray wasn't at a Cy Young or even an all-star level in 2022, but he was a solid contributor on a really good staff to help get Seattle back to the postseason for the first time in a long time.

This season, Ray was expected to be that second or third starter behind Luis Castillo, but unfortunately, that dream was over after just one start. Ray allowed five runs (three earned) in 3.1 innings pitched in what was the second game of the season for the Mariners, and exited with a forearm injury.

All seemed fine before future tests revealed he had an injury in his elbow and needed Tommy John Surgery. He underwent the surgery, and is expected to miss this season and a large chunk of next season as well.

Ray made $21 million this season for his one start and is set to make $23 million next season for half of a season (if the recovery goes as planned). Ray has an opt-out after the 2024 campaign which he likely won't exercise because he can make $25 million in 2025 and 2026 if he opts in. Chances are, Ray won't get more than that on the open market at that point.

The Mariners are on the hook for a lot more money with uncertainty of how effective Ray will be coming back from the surgery.

4) Worst contracts in the AL West: Rafael Montero of the Houston Astros

The Angels have learned that giving big free agent deals to relievers isn't the smartest thing. The contracts they handed out to Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera were disastrous. Even the contract they gave to Raisel Iglesias was bad enough to the point where they chose to salary dump him. The Astros paid one of their own in Rafael Montero and it has backfired.

Montero was brilliant for Houston in 2022, but has been a disaster since signing his three-year deal worth $34.5 million. The right-hander has a 5.47 ERA in 54 appearances for Houston this season.

Relievers are extremely volatile and it's possible that Montero bounces back and becomes the elite arm Houston expected once again, but over the course of his career he's had more bad years than good ones.

If the 32-year-old isn't pitching well this season, chances are he won't be that much better for the next two seasons. $11.5 million for the next two seasons isn't nearly as much money that a guy like Robbie Ray is set to make, but Ray is at least a starting pitcher with a higher likelihood of being worthwhile. Montero has been a low-leverage guy for much of the year because of how ineffective he's been, and will likely be worth nothing close to his contract in that role.

3) Worst contracts in the AL West: Evan White of the Seattle Mariners

In the 2019 offseason, the Mariners took a risk. They gave Evan White a six-year deal worth $24 million before the first baseman even played a single MLB inning. The deal bought out all of his pre-arbitration and arbitration years and included club options for each of his first three free-agent years.

The thinking behind a deal like that is if White turns into the good player Seattle expected him to, they'd have him on bargain money through arbitration and very cheap money in free agent years. Imagine if they had signed a guy like George Kirby to the same deal, it'd be a slam dunk. The downside to this kind of deal can be seen by simply looking at how this situation has played out.

White signed his deal and immediately became Seattle's first baseman for the 2020 season. He played in 54 of the 60 games in the shortened year, but slashed .176/.252/.346 with eight home runs and 26 RBI. He had a .599 OPS and a 66 OPS+. Not great. He did win a Gold Glove, but you can't be a starter with a .599 OPS. Just ask Andrew Velazquez.

White began the 2021 season as Seattle's first baseman as well, but after slashing .144/.202/.237 with just two home runs in 30 games, he was sent back down to the minors. He hasn't been back up since.

He played in just two games this season in the minors before landing on the IL. White is set to make $7 million in 2024 and $8 million in 2025 before the three club options appear. It feels very unlikely that the 27-year-old will play another MLB game for the Mariners.

2) Worst contracts in the AL West: Jacob deGrom of the Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers are a team that has gone all in on free agents the last couple of years, landing players like Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, and Andrew Heaney among others. One of those others was expected to anchor their rotation for the next five years in Jacob deGrom.

The Rangers signed deGrom to a massive five-year deal worth $185 million despite some glaring injury concerns this past offseason. deGrom had combined to make just 26 starts in 2021-2022 due to injuries, yet he somehow got that massive deal from the Rangers.

deGrom was able to make six starts for Texas this season and pitched well before disaster struck. Tommy John found deGrom for a second time, and he's not only set to miss the rest of this season, but also likely all of the 2024 campaign as well. Just a brutal blow for a pitcher who seemed to be on a Hall of Fame track before injuries caught up to him.

deGrom is set to make $40 million in 2024 and 2025, $38 million in 2026, and $37 million in 2027. He even has a club option for the 2028 campaign worth another $20 million. That's a whole lot of money for a guy you have no idea what you're going to get out of. deGrom is already 35 years old, and hasn't been healthy in a 162-game season since 2019.

When healthy, deGrom is the most dominant pitcher in the game. He simply hasn't been healthy, and it remains to be seen whether Texas will get the guy they thought they were paying for.

1) Worst contracts in the AL West: Anthony Rendon of the Los Angeles Angels

You knew it was coming. With Stephen Strasburg retiring, Anthony Rendon doesn't only have the worst contract in the AL West, he might have the worst contract in the majors. It's that bad.

Let's start with the durability issues. Rendon has played in 200 out of a possible 514 games. That's a 38.9% clip. He's yet to play more than 58 games in a season as an Angel, and has been on the IL three separate times this season alone. He's currently on the 60-day IL with a shin injury that could cost him the rest of the season.

Not only has Rendon barely been available, but when he has played, he hasn't been good. He had a solid year in 2020, but from 2021-2023, he's slashing .235/.338/.364 with 13 home runs and 80 RBI in 148 games. In nearly a full season's worth of work, Rendon has been a below average hitter (93 OPS+) while he's caused all sorts of problems with a pair of suspensions, and in his dealings with the media.

The longer Rendon is more of a distraction than a reason the Angels win ballgames, the more likely it is that he won't play out the remainder of his monster contract with the Angels. He signed a seven-year deal worth $245 million. He's making $38 million this season, and is set to make $38 million annually through the 2026 season.

The Angels have a lot of issues, but this Rendon contract is at the top of their list. It's certainly the worst contract in the AL West, and could be the worst in all of baseball.

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