Let’s take a look at the most cringeworthy MLB contracts fans have to live with

3. 1B Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles

In this all-or-nothing, home run-heavy offensive age in MLB, a “three true outcome” hitter like Davis should have some inherent value. But his 2018 campaign bordered on one of the worst seasons ever for quite a while, and if not for being benched at times he would have had far worse than the -2.8 WAR he finished with (via Baseball Reference).

Among the three true outcomes, home runs, strikeouts and walks, Davis’ associated rates all went the wrong direction last year. Even a small rebound, or better fortune (14.5 percent home run/fly ball rate last year) if you’re an optimist, would bring 20-25 home runs back into play for 2019. But the Orioles are paying Davis like a 53 (2013), 47 (2015) or even a 38 (2016) home run hitter, with four years and $92 million left on his mega contract.

Defensive value is quite subjective, and still be being perfected as determined by advanced metrics. But data plus the eye test says Davis adds nothing in the field, and he actually has a substantial negative effect driven in part by the pure volume of games (or percentage of his games, more precisely) he plays at first base. He should DH more often, but Baltimore has a right-handed version of Davis (Mark Trumbo) taking most of those at-bats.

The Orioles’ poor roster construction isn’t Davis’ fault, but his mega contract is the biggest of the organization’s current set of bad decisions.