Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the National League East

The New York Mets have the good fortune of having the richest owner in all of baseball in Steve Cohen. Under Cohen, the Mets have signed Max Scherzer to the biggest AAV deal in MLB history and have given Francisco Lindor the largest contract in Mets history and the record for a shortstop.

There are plenty of bargain deals in the NL East, mainly every contract the Braves give out. They have Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Matt Olson all locked up through the 2026 season at least and the most one of them will make is $22 million dollars in a season.

There's also the bargain that is the Sandy Alcantara contract. Five years $56 million dollars is insanely good value, especially for a team not willing to spend much money like the Marlins.

The biggest contracts in the NL East owned by Francisco Lindor and Bryce Harper might not age perfectly but are working out too well right now to be on this list. Harper was the MVP last season while Lindor is playing like the superstar the Mets acquired him to be this season.

10) Worst contracts in the NL East: Raisel Iglesias

The Braves just acquired Raisel Iglesias at the trade deadline to help sure up what already was a fantastic bullpen. Iglesias will serve as the set-up man for closer Kenley Jansen this season, and potentially take over that closer role for the remainder of his contract.

Iglesias is making $10 million dollars this season but is making $16 million dollars annually for the following three seasons. For a closer on a team not always spending a ton of money, that's not a great contract.

Relievers can be extremely volatile, and after enjoying a career year in 2021 which saw him finish 11th in the AL Cy Young balloting, Iglesias has gone 2-6 with a 3.61 ERA this season for the Angels and Braves.

His FIP is good and over a run lower than the ERA, suggesting he got very unlucky on an awful Angels team, but results are really all that matter in this business. Any closer making big money like that has to be dominant and Iglesias hasn't been as dominant as he was in years past.

This contract won't hurt the Braves very much considering their star players are on ridiculously cheap deals, but it doesn't help them either.

9) Worst contracts in the NL East: J.T. Realmuto

The Phillies have been one of the big spenders in baseball the last couple of years, signing guys like Harper, Zack Wheeler, Kyle Schwarber, and J.T. Realmuto.

Realmuto was the best catcher in baseball for a couple of seasons and is still among the three or five best. He's a good hitter and elite defender behind the plate. His athleticism is part of what makes him so special.

Unfortunately at age 31, Realmuto's athleticism will be on the decline shortly if it isn't already. Despite his late hot streak, the contract he has still won't age particularly well.

Realmuto signed a five-year $115.5 million dollar deal in the 2021 offseason. The first two years of the deal have been solid, but not at the level he was in 2019 when he was a Gold Glover, a Silver Slugger Award Winner, and a top 15 finisher for NL MVP.

Realmuto is making $23.8 million dollars for each of the next three seasons after this one. A catcher in his mid 30's even with Realmuto's athleticism is very unlikely to play up to the contract.

The Mets were in play for Realmuto but settled for a lesser catcher who is on a worse contract, so the Phillies could be in a worse position than they are with a catcher who's still very good right now.

8) Worst contracts in the NL East: Nick Castellanos

The Phillies made two big splashes this past offseason, signing Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos to long-term deals. Schwarber's deal has paid massive dividends so far, as he's hit a National League-leading 34 home runs so far. Despite his older age and big contract, I believe Schwarber will continue to rake as a DH in the future.

Nick Castellanos on the other hand has taken a major step back since signing a five-year $100 million dollar deal.

The 2021 all-star has slashed .257/.305/.381 with just ten home runs and 54 RBI. Castellanos was signed to be the bat that protects Bryce Harper and he just hasn't done that.

His OPS is over 250 points lower than it was in 2021, and he's hit less than a third of the home runs he hit. Great American Ballpark is a great hitters park but so is his new home, yet he's not hitting like it.

Castellanos was known as a guy who can really hit and cannot play the field. Castellanos has a -10 DRS this season. Granted he was signed to primary DH, but he still has been costing the Phillies games in the field. When Harper does come back he will likely DH at first, meaning even more time with Castellanos in right field.

He has a 93 WRC+ and a -1.0 fWAR this season. Things will probably get better, but right now it doesn't look great for a guy who's already getting booed by his own fans.

7) Worst contracts in the NL East: Avisail Garcia

The Marlins decided to spend some money this offseason, inking Alcantara to his extension and signing some bats. Jorge Soler and Avisail Garcia have both not worked out. Soler has at least been a relatively decent player, posting a 98 WRC+. He also isn't on as long of a contract as Garcia.

Garcia was the major prize for the Marlins after hitting 29 home runs with a 118 OPS+ last season with the Brewers. The Marlins signed him to a four-year $53 million dollar deal. I thought at the time the contract was pretty large considering he was 30 years old at the time, but I thought he'd at least be good for this season. Boy was I wrong.

Garcia's deal is the biggest one signed by this Marlins ownership group. With their unwillingness to spend much, Garcia had to perform and just hasn't. $53 million dollars to the Marlins is what $100 million is to the Phillies.

Garcia has slashed .232/.269/.322 with seven home runs and 30 RBI. Garcia was signed to be a power hitter for a team that is always starved for home runs but has a slugging percentage just seven points higher than Cesar Hernandez, a guy who has not hit a home run this season.

The Marlins will likely look to dump Garcia and would have to attach a really solid prospect to him in order to do so. If they can't, they'll have to bank on a bounce-back which I'm not sure is coming.

His 69 WRC+ is almost 50 points lower than it was last season, and his -0.2 fWAR suggests he's hurt the team more than he's helped. Not what you want from your big offseason signing.

6) Worst contracts in the NL East: Marcell Ozuna

The Braves re-signed Marcell Ozuna to a big four-year $65 million dollar deal with a fifth-year team option in the 2021 offseason. This came after a huge debut season in Atlanta which saw him finish sixth in the National League MVP balloting in the shortened 2020 season.

In the moment this seemed expensive, as even with his outstanding bat at the time, Ozuna had been a disaster in the field and once the DH came into play, he was going to be there permanently. The DH has arrived, Ozuna is playing mostly DH, and has flat out not hit since signing the contract.

Last season he had just a .645 OPS in 48 games, missing substantial time due to two fractured fingers and a domestic violence incident.

This season, Ozuna was given a full-time role and played himself out of it, slashing .214/.263/.393 this season. Ozuna does have 20 home runs but seems to have lost playing time to guys like Eddie Rosario and Robbie Grossman.

The Braves were reportedly trying to unload Ozuna's contract at the deadline but were unsuccessful.

Ozuna has a 79 WRC+ putting him well below league average and to combine that with his inability to play left field at a high level, he's accumulated a -1.1 fWAR this season. Not what you want from a guy making $16 million dollars annually through the 2024 season.

With the Braves seemingly getting everyone else on ridiculously cheap contracts, it's nice to see them have a brutal contract on their hands.

5) Worst contracts in the NL East: James McCann

With an owner willing to spend money the way Steve Cohen has shown he's willing to, there are bound to be bad contracts. James McCann is one of them.

In the 2020-21 offseason the Mets needed a catcher desperately. The two targets they had to choose between were James McCann and J.T. Realmuto. McCann was the far cheaper option and with Francisco Alvarez coming in the future, it did make some sense to choose McCann and spend more money elsewhere.

However, I don't think the Mets assumed McCann's bat would fall off as much as it has since signing in New York.

The 32-year-old had just a .643 OPS last season followed by an even worse .495 OPS this season. His 41 OPS+ forced the Mets to strongly consider trading for a catcher like Willson Contreras at the deadline because the McCann/Nido combination is a disaster offensively.

McCann signed a four-year $40 million dollar deal prior to the 2021 campaign following an all-star appearance in 2019 and a really solid season in 2020. With Francisco Alvarez potentially coming up this season and most definitely next season, that contract is not a good one by any means. McCann is already a part-time player splitting time with Nido this season and would get even less playing time if the Mets kept him in the future.

I personally think Nido is the perfect backup catcher and expect McCann to be dealt with a prospect or released when Alvarez is ready.

McCann has saved the contract somewhat by playing really solid defense behind the plate but the Mets signed him thinking his bat would be serviceable at the very least and it's been nothing close to that. The Mets thinking of upgrades less than two seasons into his deal shows how bad it is.

3) Worst contracts in the NL East: Robinson Cano

Good friend Robinson Cano is still being paid by the Mets despite more recently playing against them on a division rival.

The Mets traded for Cano thinking he'd be their answer at second base despite already having a better second baseman on the roster and are still paying him a shade over $20 million dollars annually through the 2023 season.

The year-long suspension causing him to miss the entire 2021 season put Cano's future as a Met in serious jeopardy and when the 39-year-old slashed .195/.233/.268 the Mets ended up releasing him.

Other teams for whatever reason had interest in Cano and he ended up signing with the Padres. Cano had just three hits in 33 at-bats in San Diego. Cano then found his way in Atlanta and ended up getting just four hits in 26 at-bats there. He helped the Mets more in the past two seasons by getting suspended and performing poorly with the Braves than he did when he played on the team this season.

The Mets are on the hook for over $20 million dollars next season despite Cano not playing for the team anymore. Hopefully, a team like the Phillies sign him next so he can help them out more.

2) Worst contracts in the NL East: Patrick Corbin

In the 2018-19 offseason, Patrick Corbin signed a six-year $140 million dollar deal with the Nationals. He was coming off of his best season which saw him finish in the top five in NL Cy Young Award voting with Arizona and was going to be the third member of Washington's big three in the rotation behind Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.

For the 2019 season, their plan was executed perfectly. The Nationals won the World Series and Corbin was a huge reason why, posting three solid starts while also working effectively out of the bullpen. Corbin's three shutout innings in Game 7 were a huge reason they won the World Series.

Since then, the contract has been an absolute disaster. He struggled in 2020, took a major step back with a 5.82 ERA in 2021, and has been even worse in 2022.

Patrick Corbin is the worst pitcher in baseball right now. I don't think it's a stretch to say that and I don't think anyone would argue that.

The southpaw has gone 4-16 with a 6.96 ERA in 24 starts for the Nationals. He has given up the most hits and earned runs in the National League while leading the league in losses. If the Nationals were playing for anything, Corbin would be in the bullpen or probably released by now. His -2.6 bWAR is hard to fathom.

The Nationals being unable to dump him in a Juan Soto trade means there's virtually no way out of this contract other than just releasing him. Corbin is making $24 million dollars next season and a whopping $35 million dollars in 2024 before hitting free agency.

I'm sure Nationals fans are perfectly fine trading five years of an awful Patrick Corbin for a World Series title but it must be very hard to watch this guy struggle this much every fifth day.

1) Worst contracts in the NL East: Stephen Strasburg

The only reason Corbin isn't the worst contract in this division is because he at least takes the mound every fifth day. His teammate, Stephen Strasburg, has made eight starts posting a 6.89 ERA since signing a seven-year $245 million dollar contract following the 2019 season.

Strasburg was the World Series MVP and the Nationals chose to retain him over star third baseman Anthony Rendon in the 2019-20 offseason. While both contracts have been bad, Strasburg has the worst contract in baseball and it's not close.

Strasburg made five starts last season before being shut down in June. This season Strasburg returned in June and made one start. After allowing seven runs on eight hits against the offensively challenged Marlins in 4.2 innings pitched he was shut down again and is out for the season.

Strasburg is set to make $35 million dollars annually through the 2026 season. The Nationals are rebuilding and these awful contracts in their rotation make it hard for them to add to the team around them. They already traded Juan Soto and will likely be at the bottom of the National League East for a number of years.

Strasburg hopefully can make more than one start next season but it'd be foolish to expect much more than that for really the remainder of his contract.

Like Corbin, the only way Washington can realistically get out of this contract is by releasing him. This would be a harder pill to swallow considering the money owed and his place in Nationals franchise history. This is without a doubt the worst contract in the NL East.