The Dodgers have gone from bankrupt to top spenders over the past decade, signing many big dollar contracts along the way. Who are the five worst signings since 2010?
When Magic Johnson and the new ownership group purchased the Dodgers from , the franchise had been bankrupt and their payroll ranked 12th in baseball, nearly $60 million below their Freeway counterparts in Anaheim.
The following season, in 2013, the Dodgers payroll jumped to second overall. From 2014-2017, they had the highest payroll in all of baseball. They have been no lower than fourth since.
All of that money being spent, of course there has to be some regrettable free agent signings, so I decided to make a list and rank the five worst signings since 2010, overlapping a bit with the end of the McCourt era.
When considering the the criteria for the worst signings, I decided to focus on the outcome of each contract rather than putting myself into the minds of the people in charge of making the decision at the time. While it’s important to consider why a signing was made, and some weight is given to that, results matter. These are the worst contracts in terms of their actual value relative to how they were originally priced.