Red Sox: Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the American League East right now

The American League East is not only the best division in baseball right now, but this season it's been one of the best divisions of all time with every team over .500 in mid-August. Even the Boston Red Sox, despite some inconsistent play of late, are five games over .500 and not in last place.

With teams being so good, there're bound to be some good contracts. Teams like the Rays and Orioles have been among the best teams in the AL all season despite low payrolls. Even the Blue Jays have done a nice job spreading their money around and have mostly stayed away from bad contracts.

When looking at the worst contracts in the AL East, most of the focus is on the two consistent spenders in the division, the Yankees and the Red Sox. Those two teams are battling for fourth in the division right now. Maybe if they spent a little wiser, they'd be in a better spot when it comes to the playoff race.

It's important to note that the rankings of these contracts have to do with what's left more than the present value. Everyone knows the Corey Kluber contract wound up being an awful one, but he's likely gone after the year.

10) Worst contracts in the AL East: Josh Donaldson

Following the 2019 season, Josh Donaldson signed a four-year deal worth $92 million to join the Twins following an MVP-caliber year in Atlanta. He had a rough 2020 but bounced back in 2021 as he hit 26 home runs and had an .827 OPS.

Minnesota then turned around and traded Donaldson with two years left on his contract to the Yankees in a deal that sent Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela to Minnesota. Donaldson has been an utter disaster in New York.

He had an awful year in 2022, and this season has slashed .142/.225/.434 with ten home runs and 15 RBI. He has 15 hits in 106 at-bats this season. He's been a good defender at the hot corner, but his bat has made him a negative player overall.

Donaldson is currently on the 60-day IL and isn't eligible to return until September. He's making $25 million this season to essentially do nothing while on the field, and spend a whole lot of time on the IL.

Donaldson being on the final year of his deal makes this contract only the 10th worst in the division, but it's been a brutal one for the Yankees overall.

8) Worst contracts in the AL East: Chris Sale

Prior to the 2019 season, the Red Sox agreed to a contract extension that would keep Chris Sale in Boston for another five seasons. It began in the 2020 season and was worth $145 million. After being one of the best pitchers in baseball prior to the extension, Sale simply hasn't been able to stay on the field.

Tommy John Surgery knocked Sale out of action for the entire 2020 season and most of 2021. He made just 11 starts combined in 2021 and 2022 as he dealt with other injuries, which kept him on the sidelines. This season has been his healthiest since 2019, but the results haven't quite been there.

Sale has been limited to 12 starts as he missed substantial time due to a stress fracture in his left scapula. He has a 4.52 ERA in those starts which is not great, although a 3.69 FIP suggests he's been unlucky. He just returned off the IL this past weekend and he allowed two runs in 4.2 innings pitched.

It's nice to have Sale back in action and him being the Chris Sale we remember and love would provide Boston with a much-needed boost, but how reliable is he to actually take the ball every fifth day? He's made 23 starts since signing his extension over four years ago after averaging 29 starts per season from 2012-2019.

Sale is making $27.5 million this season, is set to make another $27.5 million next season, and has a $20 million club option for 2025. Boston hasn't gotten much with this contract, and it feels like they won't ever get anything close to what they had expected.

7) Worst contracts in the AL East: Manuel Margot

The Tampa Bay Rays are one of the most fiscally responsible teams in the league. Despite never having a high payroll, they're always able to field teams that wind up being postseason or even World Series contenders. This season has been no exception.

They just made their most expensive free agent addition, bringing in Zach Eflin on a three-year deal this past offseason. Sure enough, Eflin has been one of the best pitchers in the American League this season. Unfortunately, not even the Rays can hit a 100% success rate when it comes to the contracts they hand out. The contract they gave to Manuel Margot hasn't aged very well.

The Rays gave the former Red Sox prospect Margot a two-year deal worth $19 million. That deal might not be so bad for teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, but Margot is the Rays' most expensive position player in terms of his 2023 salary. When looking at it from that lens and the fact that they could've used that money on a better player, it's a bad contract.

This season, Margot is slashing .249/.298/.356 with three home runs and 29 RBI in 84 games. He's mostly a platoon player at this point when the Rays roster is whole.

Margot is making $7 million this season, $10 million next season, and he has a mutual option for $12 million with a $2 million buyout for the 2025 campaign. Again, it's not a horrific contract when thinking about it with a Red Sox payroll. The Rays' most expensive position player is a bench bat.

6) Worst contracts in the AL East: George Springer

The Toronto Blue Jays made a statement, inking George Springer on a massive contract as a free agent. They gave him a six-year deal worth $150 million to leave the Astros and go north of the border. It felt like an overpay at the time, but for a Toronto team looking to win at the time he signed there, it definitely did make sense.

Springer was every bit the player Toronto expected in each of the first two years of his contract. He had a 135 OPS+ and averaged 24 home runs and 63 RBI playing center field in those years. The problem was he only played in 211 of his possible 324 games as injuries mounted.

The injury concerns caused Toronto to bring Kevin Kiermaier in this offseason and move Springer to a corner. He's played right field exclusively this season outside of 13 appearances as the DH and has stayed healthier, but his production has fallen off.

In 113 games he's slashing .259/.325/.397 with 14 home runs and 46 RBI. This is a player who hit 22 home runs in just 78 games in 2021, and he has just 14 in nearly 150 more at-bats this season.

At 33 years old, Springer appears to be in decline yet he's set to make $22.5 million annually through the 2026 season. The good times were cut short due to injuries, and he's finally stayed healthy when he hasn't looked like the same hitter.

5) Worst contracts in the AL East: Trevor Story

The Trevor Story contract is a bit hard to judge right now. The Red Sox brought Story to Boston last season to play second base alongside Xander Bogaerts who was the shortstop. Story was nothing more than average offensively as he had a 101 OPS+ in 94 games last season.

Story wound up having elbow surgery in January, knocking him out for all but four games of this season. He has just three hits in his 15 at-bats so far, but Boston clearly has missed him. They've had some of the worst production in the league at the shortstop position, and Story is obviously better than terrible.

It's nice to have him back for now, but the first two years of Story's six-year deal are a complete wash. He was hurt and underperformed last year, now he missed most of this season in a campaign that will likely lead nowhere for Boston.

The 30-year-old has the remaining four years of his deal to prove he was worth anything close to the $140 million Boston guaranteed him. If he continues to be an average hitter who doesn't play much, he'll likely only move higher up this list. If he reverts back to being the Trevor Story the Red Sox expected, maybe he finds his way off the list entirely. It's all in his hands.

4) Worst contracts in the AL East: Aaron Hicks

Prior to the 2019 season, the New York Yankees agreed to a seven-year extension worth $70 million with Aaron Hicks to keep him in the Bronx through the 2025 season. Hicks was coming off an outstanding 2018 season which saw him receive MVP consideration as he finished 22nd in the balloting, and it seemed to be well-deserved at the time.

Unfortunately for New York, Hicks had trouble staying healthy and productive after inking the extension. From 2019-2022, he slashed .220/.334/.367 with 30 home runs and 111 RBI. He hit 27 home runs in 137 games in 2018, and managed just 30 long balls in his 275 games played from 2019-2022. The lack of production was highlighted by his 96 OPS+ and declining defense.

As if his lack of production wasn't enough, Hicks played just 275 of the 546 games he had the chance to play in that span. Just a shade over half.

This season, Hicks continued to be a shell of the player he once was. He slashed .188/.263/.261 with one home run and five RBI in 28 games before the Yankees finally had enough and DFA'd him. This was noteworthy because Hicks still had guaranteed years left on his deal.

The 33-year-old is making $10.5 million this season, $9.5 million in 2024, and $11.5 million in 2025. The Yankees will watch Hicks play against them while paying him seven or eight figures annually through the 2025 season. To make matters worse for them, Hicks is playing for the division-leading Orioles right now and he has a 118 OPS+ in his 42 games in Baltimore.

3) Worst contracts in the AL East: DJ LeMahieu

DJ LeMahieu went from being a really solid player in Colorado to an MVP candidate in the Bronx in an eye blink. He finished fourth in the AL MVP balloting in 2019, and followed that up with a third-place finish in 2020. He had become an absolute star hitting leadoff right in front of Aaron Judge in what was once a potent Yankees lineup.

LeMahieu was a free agent after his year as an MVP finalist and was rightfully going to get paid for what he had done in his last two seasons in New York. The Red Sox were interested, but the Yankees gave him a six-year deal worth $90 million. The six years to a relatively old LeMahieu at the time was to lower the AAV to a modest $15 million. Unfortunately, his decline has made the deal less favorable than it appeared to be at the time.

LeMahieu's OPS fell 300 points from 2020 to 2021, decreasing from 1.011 to .711. He had a solid year in 2022, albeit not in his prior MVP form, but he missed substantial time with a toe injury and now in 2023 the wheels have really fallen off.

The 35-year-old is slashing .240/.315/.373 with eight home runs and 29 RBI in 96 games. He's been healthier than most of his Yankees counterparts, yet he's failed to do much of anything offensively for much of the season.

The worst part about this deal for the Yankees is there're still three more years of it. LeMahieu is set to make $15 million annually through the 2026 season. If 35-year-old LeMahieu is a below-average hitter, I don't think many Yankee fans are excited to find out what 38-year-old LeMahieu looks like offensively.

2) Worst contracts in the AL East: Carlos Rodon

It's only year one of Carlos Rodon's lucrative six-year deal, but it already looks quite bad. He's been hurt for most of the year, and in the rare times he's been able to take the ball, he's been awful. Those things combined with some boos from Yankees fans have made Rodon's debut in New York one to forget.

Rodon's six-year deal worth $162 million came with a ton of risk. Outside of the 2022 season, Rodon had never started 30+ games in a season. He had only one additional year in which he qualified for the ERA title, and that was back in 2016. The talent was never a question, but whether he'd actually pitch certainly was.

So far in his Yankees tenure, Rodon simply hasn't pitched. Forearm and back issues plagued him early on, and he couldn't even debut as a Yankee until right before the all-star break. Rodon just left his most recent start early due to a hamstring strain, and that landed him back on the IL.

In between the injuries, when Rodon did pitch, he had a 7.33 ERA in six starts and 27 innings pitched. He's been booed on numerous occasions by Yankees fans, and even attempted to fight against them in a start in Anaheim by blowing a kiss to the crowd.

He still has five years to turn his contract around, but nothing about his history suggests he'll actually be able to pitch consistently enough to make his $27 million annual salary worthwhile for the Yankees.

1) Worst contracts in the AL East: Giancarlo Stanton

Once upon a time, there was not a more exciting player to watch in the game than Giancarlo Stanton. He hit 59 home runs in 2017 on his way to an MVP award. One Yankees fans swore would be the first of many, after New York acquired him in the 2017 offseason.

The Yankees took Stanton and most of his monstrous 13-year deal worth $325 million expecting him to form the most dangerous power duo alongside Aaron Judge. When healthy Stanton has played a big role for the most part, particularly in the postseason, but it's become abundantly clear that he's not close to the player he once was and will likely never get back to that level.

Stanton has struggled to stay healthy for much of his Yankees tenure, and that has remained true this season. To make matters worse, he's slashing .208/.280/.461 with 18 home runs and 44 RBI in the 66 games he's played. He has a 101 OPS+, making him just a tick above league average offensively.

Stanton rarely plays the field, can't seem to run without being hurt, and just isn't the hitter he once was. He hurts the Yankees flexibility on and off the field with his limitations and giant contract.

The 33-year-old has another four years and $118 million remaining on his deal. The Marlins are eating $30 million of it, but a $22 million AAV for a DH that isn't an elite hitter anymore, gets hurt all the time, and can't really play the field or run is a hefty sum.

Stanton can still get as hot and hit a ball as far as anyone, but those big moments are few and far between now. Maybe he'll find something again, but it's hard to envision with the way things have gone.