Why is it taking so long to sign Harper and Machado?
Here's a list of 15 players, all of whom were among the 40 highest-paid players in 2018:
Miguel Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes, Albert Pujols, Felix Hernandez, Jason Heyward, Yu Darvish, Jordan Zimmermann, Hanley Ramirez, Johnny Cueto, Adrian Gonzalez, Ian Desmond, Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Davis, Homer Bailey and Troy Tulowitzki.
Those players made a combined $361.7 million in 2018, about 8.5 percent of all money spent on payroll -- and were worth a combined minus-1.1 WAR.
So with that, MLB's worst contracts on each team:
1. Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis (4 years, $92 million)
2. Detroit Tigers: Miguel Cabrera (5 years, $154 million)
3. Los Angeles Angels: Albert Pujols (3 years, $87 million)
13. Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg (5 years, $138.3 million) or Patrick Corbin (6 years, $140 million)
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25885766/ranking-worst-current-contracts-all-30-teamsSomewhere I remember saying that the Cabrera deal could be worse than Pujols, but the Davis deal has failed spectacularly, even more than I imagined, even with ADD exemption.