Number 2 -Nick Castellanos, OF/DH, Philadelphia Phillies
Five Years (2022-2026), $100M ($20M AAV)
In March 2022, Dave Dombrowski did a very Dave Dombrowski thing: he added two players best suited in the role of DH, and both ended up playing more outfield than anyone with a baseball IQ above 10 would want.
Kyle Schwarber acted like himself, hitting 46 homers and posting a .827 OPS, but Nick Castellanos fell off a cliff, hitting 13 homers and posting a .694 OPS. He recovered to resemble the player he once was in 2023 with a 20-homer season and a .788 OPS, but 2024 saw him hanging on the edge of the cliff with both hands. He’s hit 20 homers and played 146 games, but he’s batting .245, has a just below league-average 99 wRC+, and his defense makes him worth less than 1 fWAR.
Numbers are down across the board, but Castellanos’ .717 OPS is just a tick under the NL’s .718. His defense has never been good, and it’s worse now than ever, according to all available metrics.
Castellanos’ defense is only going to get worse, but he's a dangerous hitter and is likely to improve if he doesn’t have to play the field, so a team needing a DH would need very little encouragement to take his contract, making it only the second-worst contract in the division.
Number 1- Jorge Soler, OF/DH, Atlanta Braves
Three Years (2024 –2026), $42M ($16M AAV)
The Giants gave Jorge Soler a three-year deal because they were desperate for a power bat, hoping his 2023 was a look at his future. It wasn’t.
The Giants finally gave the Braves $12M to take Soler and Luke Jackson off their hands, and the Braves were desperate enough for power to take the deal.
Soler’s a square peg the Braves are trying to jam into a round hole and with no place to put him over the next two seasons. It would be folly to let Ozuna leave in favor of Soler, but unlike Castellanos, who has 13 hits, including two homers, four doubles, and a 107 wRC+ in 58 high-leverage PA, Soler is 6 for 44 with a double and 20 wRC+ in 44 high-leverage PA.
Even used solely as a DH, he’s not consistent enough to be worth his existing deal, making his contract the worst in the NL East by a large margin.
Injury and old age are the biggest reasons contracts go bad. Every year, a team will pay a player too much for too long, and pundits tell us the team knows the contract will be bad in the long term but is willing to take the risk.
Some teams have to agree to a potentially bad deal to get a free agent to sign there (hello, Colorado), or despite history telling them otherwise, the owner or GM just has to have to have this player.
It’s silly to blame a player for agreeing to earn twice his market value, and, to a degree, it’s easy to see why a team desperate for a player signs a contract they’ll regret sooner rather than later. But knowing that doesn’t make watching it happen any easier.