Worst free agent signings

Free agency is a little like college recruiting: Way too many of those “can’t-miss” prospects can, and do, miss.

That’s bad enough in colleges, where enough bad decisions can cost a coach his job. In the pros, those miscalculations can cost a club tens of millions of dollars that might have been better spent on someone who could actually play the game in question.

Many an owner has come away with a bad case of buyer’s remorse, a condition worsened by every poor performance, strained hamstring, or trip to the injured list. Some gaffes stand out more than others, however, and here are our top 10 worst free agents signings of all-time:

1. Barry Zito, San Francisco Giants, 7 years, $126 million: When Zito made the short drive across the Bay Bridge from Oakland, he must have left his curveball on the other side. He went 21-30 in his first two seasons with the Giants and won just one of his first 10 starts this year. He is still owed a lot of money for a long, long time.

2. Mike Hampton, Colorado Rockies, 8 years, $121 million: No one wants to pitch in Coors Field, and the Rockies paid a premium to tie up a left-hander who had won 37 games for the Astros and Mets in 1999 and 2000. After watching him go 21-28 in two unhappy seasons, Colorado was happy to ship him off to the Braves.

3. Jason Giambi, New York Yankees, 7 years, $120 million: It wasn’t that Giambi was bad; he just wasn’t worth this kind of money. His power numbers faded in New York, and he was a liability at first base. All those whispers about steroids didn’t help, either, especially when he issued a public apology but wouldn’t say what it was for.

Advertisement

Pages: 1 2