Blue Jays: Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the AL East

The Toronto Blue Jays have spent big the last couple of offseasons, signing guys like Hyun-Jin Ryu, George Springer, and Kevin Gausman in each of the last three winters. They’ve also made other big moves like the Yusei Kikuchi signing, and the Matt Chapman+Jose Berrios trades and extensions.

When teams spend big as the Jays have, there are bound to be some good signings and some bad. The Kevin Gausman deal has aged very well in year one. The Jose Berrios extension, not looking great so far.

In a division that includes the Yankees and Red Sox there figure to be a lot of bad contracts. Here are the ten worst in the American League East.

10. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Prior to the 2020 season, the Blue Jays signed Hyun-Jin Ryu to a four-year $80 million dollar deal. On the surface, this seemed like a slight overpay given Ryu’s injury history, but if he came to Toronto and pitched well, it wouldn’t really matter.

In the shortened 2020 season, Ryu gave the Jays everything they could have wanted. He stayed healthy and finished third in the AL Cy Young balloting, leading the Jays to an unlikely playoff berth albeit with an expanded playoff.

Ryu was not great in 2021, but he made 31 starts, which was huge for a Blue Jays team trying to fight for a playoff spot.

Unfortunately for Ryu and the Blue Jays, the final two years of his contract have been and will be a disaster. Ryu made just six starts this season and pitched poorly. His season was over in June as he needed surgery on his elbow. This will most likely make him miss the entirety of the 2023 season as well.

Ryu is set to make $20 million dollars next season and is unlikely to make any starts. The only season he was really good for Toronto was a shortened season that saw him only make 12 starts.

I do believe that the Ryu deal was still worth it for the Jays, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a bad contract at this stage. Even though there’s only one year left, for Ryu to not throw an inning next season while cashing in $20 million dollars is a tough pill to swallow.

9. Gerrit Cole

In the 2019 offseason, the Yankees finally got their target to anchor their rotation for years to come. After years of striking out on aces via trade, the Yankees shelled out the money to sign a guy, who at the time was a top three pitcher in Gerrit Cole, to a massive nine-year $324 million dollar deal.

Everyone knew it was an overpay at the time, but that’s really how free agency works. You’re in a bidding war with 29 other teams so you have to be able to beat the other offers.

In Cole’s first year as a Yankee, he was dominant, posting a 2.84 ERA in 12 starts in the 2020 season. He looked like the best pitcher in the American League for much of 2021 until the sticky stuff crackdown took place. Cole was still good after that, but not the elite Cole we had seen in Houston and the first year in New York.

This season, Cole has gone 9-6 with a 3.41 ERA in 25 starts. It seems like he puts a couple of very good starts together followed by an awful start.  The inconsistency is not something you want from a guy making over $30 million dollars annually.

Cole is making $36 million dollars in 2022 and the same for every season through the 2028 campaign. Cole will be 37 when the deal is up. He’s still an ace but is not worth anything close to the deal he is getting.

8. George Springer

I love George Springer. I think he was a very good signing as he provides just about anything you want in a ballplayer. He can hit, he can hit for power, he can run, he can play the field, and he can throw. He’s a centre fielder who is one of the best leadoff hitters in the game.

Unfortunately for Springer and the Jays, the guy just can’t stay healthy. Last season he had a 141 OPS+ and hit 22 home runs. The problem is he only played in 78 games. This season he has 3.1 bWAR, which is really solid. The most impressive part about it is he has a 3.1 bWAR in just 94 games played. The problem is, he only has 94 games played!

Springer is 32 and is making $22.5 million dollars annually through the 2026 season. He will be 36 by then. Will he be able to play centre field? Will he even be able to play in 100 games? It’s hard to count on him now, I’d imagine it’ll be even harder to count on him then.

Springer is such a good player, I just wish he could stay on the field. The Jays are so much better when he plays, and he lengthens the lineup so much putting an immediate threat at the top like that.

It might be time for the Blue Jays to consider using Springer at DH more often so he can stay on the field more because his bat is too crucial for the Jays to not have down the stretch.

6. Trevor Story

The Trevor Story signing always confused me. The Red Sox franchise player at the moment is Xander Bogaerts. He’s been there for each of Boston’s last two World Series championships and has been their shortstop for years. Even with questionable at-best defense, Bogaerts is one of the better shortstops in the game because of his bat.

Story signing on to be a second baseman was interesting, and I’m not really sure if he’s going to be there full-time in the future. Bogaerts has an opt-out after the season and can leave, so is Boston just trying to save money again? Bogaerts will likely make more on his next contract than Story is currently making.

Story signed a six-year $140 million dollar deal with the Red Sox this past offseason. In his first year away from Coors Field, things have not gone well. He’s slashed .221/.289/.423 with 15 home runs and 58 RBI.

Story did have one ridiculous week in May when he hit seven home runs with an OPS of 1.463 to help Boston reach .500 after a sluggish start. However, before and after that stretch, this Story has not had a happy ending.

He was a guy whose numbers were inflated due to Coors Field and he’s proven that this season by struggling with no games played in Colorado.

To add to the complications, Story has missed substantial time due to injury as he’s only played in 81 games for Boston and is still out now with a hairline fracture in his wrist.

The Red Sox have five more guaranteed years of Story (although Story could opt out after the 2026 season). Whether his future is at second base or shortstop, the signing has not gone well at all. Boston is in last place in the AL East and with their best players in Bogaerts and Rafael Devers expecting massive pay raises, the Story contract could make things very difficult for Boston.

5. Jose Berrios

I know that Jose Berrios should be on this list, I really just don’t know where he should be put. He has had the most confusing seasons in baseball in year one of a big extension with the Jays.

The Jays traded for Jose Berrios at the deadline last season, and he pitched pretty well for them. His numbers were on par with what they were in Minnesota, and it appeared the Jays were going to have a pitcher to anchor the top of their rotation for years to come.

With the signing of Kevin Gausman and the emergence of Alek Manoah, I thought that the Jays were set up to have one of the better rotations in the game for a long time. Gausman and Manoah have been great this year, but Berrios has been anything but great.

The 28-year-old has gone 9-5 with a 5.39 ERA in 24 starts for Toronto. He leads the league in earned runs and home runs allowed. He’s allowed 10.1 hits per nine and 1.8 HR/9. His strikeouts are down as well. Berrios is at an age where he should be entering his prime but is instead declining at a ridiculous rate.

Berrios will have a start like he just had at Yankee Stadium where he delivers 6.2 innings of one-run ball for the Blue Jays, but allows eight runs against the Guardians at home the start before.

To add to the confusion, Berrios has been mostly fine pitching at Rogers Centre. His 4.10 home ERA isn’t great, but it isn’t awful. The 6.82 road ERA is what’s really confusing. That road ERA went way down after the game at Yankee Stadium.

Berrios signed a seven-year $131 million dollar extension this offseason to stay in Toronto. I thought at the time that this would be a bargain considering his age and low AAV. It’s turned out to be the opposite. $18.7 million dollars annually for this Berrios is a disaster thus far.

It’s gotten to the point where Toronto has to consider starting a guy like Ross Stripling in a potential Game 3 of a playoff matchup if they get there. I still believe Berrios can turn it around, as his stuff is too good for him to be this bad. But the turnaround has to happen fast.

4. Chris Sale

Much like the Berrios contract, I thought the Chris Sale contract was a great deal for Boston. They signed him right after winning a World Series and he was one of the better pitchers in the game at that point.

While I liked both at the time, the reasons I don’t like either now are entirely different. Berrios is underperforming his contract strictly because of his performance on the field. Sale isn’t living up to his because he cannot stay on the field.

In the first year under his new deal, 2019, he made 25 starts but pitched to a 4.40 ERA despite posting a ridiculous 13.3 K/9. Since then, Sale missed the entire 2020 season, made just nine starts in 2021, and two starts this season before being shut down again.

Sale has gotten incredibly unlucky with the injuries this season. In Spring Training, he suffered a right rib stress fracture that knocked him out for the first three months of the season. He then returned on July 12th and pitched five scoreless innings against Tampa Bay. But in his second start, he was hit by a come-backer and fractured his pinky finger on his pitching hand.

That injury was going to have him out for a while, and then Sale suffered a fractured wrist in a bike accident, which officially ended his season.

Sale has an opt-out after this season which he almost certainly will not exercise. This means Boston is on the hook for another two seasons at $27.5 million dollars annually for a guy they have no idea whether can stay healthy at all. This money, much like Story’s contract, might be why Boston lets one or both of Bogaerts and Devers leave in free agency or via trade.

3. Aaron Hicks

When Aaron Hicks was acquired by the Yankees from the Twins, he eventually began playing like the player he was supposed to be. The former first-round pick in the 2008 MLB Draft had back-to-back seasons of an OPS over .800 and an OPS+ in the 120s. Right before the 2019 season, Hicks and the Yankees agreed to a seven-year $70 million dollar extension.

Hicks was coming off of a season where he hit 27 home runs and had a .833 OPS in 137 games. He even got some MVP votes, placing 22nd on the American League ballot.

Since signing that extension, Hicks hasn’t performed close to how he did in that 2018 season. He dealt with injuries in 2019 and 2021 playing in just 91 games combined in those two seasons. During the 2020 campaign, he did play 54 games in the shortened season but hit just six home runs.

Hicks has declined both offensively and defensively, forcing Aaron Judge to play a lot of centre field. He has just a .636 OPS and appears to have lost his everyday role.

The Yankees were able to unload Joey Gallo at the deadline, but Hicks’ contract is much harder to move. He has $29.5 million dollars guaranteed over the next three seasons. While that might not be a gigantic number, especially for the Yankees, I can’t see them holding onto him for much longer.

Hicks is a centre fielder who can’t really play centre field at a high level anymore as he has a -1 OAA this season in that spot. With Hicks already losing playing time now, I’d expect him to not be on the roster in the future.

2. Yusei Kikuchi

Yusei Kikuchi signed with the Blue Jays this offseason to try and round out what was supposed to be a really good starting rotation. At the time I did not think the signing made much sense, and it turned out to be worse than I thought it would have been.

Kikuchi has gone 4-7 with a 5.18 ERA in 21 appearances (20 starts) prior to his disastrous relief appearance on Tuesday night. Just about everything that had gone wrong for the southpaw in Seattle has gone wrong for him in Toronto thus far.

Kikuchi has walked an absurd 5.4 batters per nine innings. This issue has caused him to reach very high pitch counts early on and has often put the Jays in early holes. The Blue Jays have gone just 6-14 in his starts while going 59-41 otherwise.

Kikuchi has allowed 19 home runs in 83.1 innings pitched, 2.1 HR/9. If he had enough innings to qualify, that’d be the second highest mark in baseball. He has also gone less than five innings 13 times in his 20 starts and has worked into the sixth inning just four times.

Walking a ton of batters while allowing as many home runs as he does has predictably ended up being disastrous for the 31-year-old.

Kikuchi does strike out 10 batters per nine, so the stuff is there. It’s a shame he can never seem to locate it. He was just moved to the bullpen and despite some bumps, he did get through a scoreless inning in his first relief appearance. The Blue Jays have to rely on someone like Mitch White to make big starts for them down the stretch tells you all you need to know about how this contract has gone.

Kikuchi has two years at $10 million dollars each season left on his deal. While that is not the most money ever given, it might inhibit the Jays from adding another starter, which they desperately need to do this offseason.

I’d be surprised if he made it through those last two years in Toronto. It was, and still is, a bad contract. But on the bright side, it is not the worst one in this division.

1. Chris Davis

Chris Davis is officially retired but is still number one on this list. The former Orioles slugger averaged 39 home runs per season from 2012-2016, including hitting as many as 53 in 2013. Davis wasn’t much of a name until that season when he broke out in Baltimore and became a star.

Before the 2016 season, Davis cashed in. He signed a seven-year $161 million dollar deal to stay in Baltimore. When this contract was signed, it included a lot of deferred money.

Unfortunately, the star years were short-lived. Davis had a pretty good 2016 season, hitting 38 home runs and having an OPS just shy of .800. After that, he fell off a cliff offensively. Things got so bad to the point where he endured a 54 at-bat hitless streak spanning from the end of 2018 to 2019.

Davis played in just 16 games in 2020 and retired in 2021 with more time on his contract.

The contract portion of the deal expires at the end of this season. After that, Davis will receive yearly checks from the Orioles for a long time in a Bobby Bonilla type of contract.

Davis is going to make $9.167 million dollars from 2023-2025. That number goes down to $3.5 million dollars from 2026-2032. After that, it goes to $1.4 million dollars from 2033-2037. Davis will receive $42 million dollars in total and will receive yearly checks until he is 51 years old, according to spotrac.com.

Davis was the highest-paid Oriole this season despite being retired by a wide margin and is on track to be the highest paid for the foreseeable future unless they decide to spend money.

Davis was a solid player for a grand total of one year that he is going to be receiving money from the Orioles since signing his extension.