8 of the worst contracts in Detroit Tigers history

It is a time of optimism for Detroit Tigers fans.

Sure, Major League Baseball is currently in the midst of a lockout. And the Detroit Tigers have the second-worst winning percentage in baseball over the past five years. But the 2021 season was undeniably a step in the right direction.

The Tigers have their manager in place. They’ve overhauled their player development system. Their young pitchers all showed positive signs in 2021, and their top two hitting prospects look like potential impact players as soon as this season.

Yes, it’s a good time to be a Detroit Tigers fan. So let’s remember some terrible contracts.

Look, lockouts don’t provide a ton of content. And perhaps remembering some terrible deals from the past can help warn us about ugly deals in the future. If this is all too negative for you, feel free to look at our piece from last year on the best free-agent signings in Detroit Tigers history.

We settled on the year 2000 as a starting point for this piece, but beyond that we don’t have any strict criteria. Some of these deals are very long and expensive, while others are short and mostly forgettable. The only common thread is they just didn’t work out for the Tigers.

Let’s begin.

Detroit Tigers 8th Worst Contract – Joe Nathan

The Detroit Tigers actively tried to compete from roughly 2004 to 2017. But, through a remarkable mix of poor decisions, bad luck, and seemingly divine punishment, they rarely managed to field a reliable closer. This run of calamity began with veteran Troy Percival, who nearly made this list, and ends with veteran Francisco Rodríguez. But Joe Nathan’s failure was perhaps the most disappointing.

It retrospect, it seems crazy for the Tigers to have committed $20 million over two years to a closer heading into his age-39 season. There were a few indicators of what was to come — namely diminished velocity and his highest walk rate in a decade — but Joe Nathan was coming off a spectacular season in which he earned 43 saves and posted a 1.39 ERA and a  2.26 FIP. And over the previous decade he was quite literally the best reliever in baseball this side of Mariano Rivera. Joe Nathan’s career numbers are worthy of Hall of Fame consideration, but in Detroit he stumbled to a 4.81 ERA in 2014. Then in 2015 he hurt his elbow after just four pitches, and his Tigers career was finished.

Detroit Tigers 7th Worst Contract – Craig Paquette

Craig Paquette was spectacularly bad for the Detroit Tigers. It’s hard to go back to 2001 and figure out exactly what General Manager Randy Smith was thinking, but it’s no surprise he was fired a week into the 2002 season. Paquette was primarily a third baseman, though he also played five other positions in the big leauges. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good defender at any of those spots. He wasn’t fast, he struck out too much, he almost never walked, and he wasn’t a good hitter. The only thing Craig Paquette had going for him was his power. After six season in the majors he was a career .232 hitter with 55 home runs and a negative career WAR.

But he found a role with St. Louis, and in his three seasons with the Cardinals he batted .267 with 40 home runs in 305 games. The Tigers apparently felt they were getting a late bloomer, so they pounced on the 33-year-old with a two-year, $5 million deal. Paquette was an utter disaster for the Tigers in 2003, and he saw just 33 at-bats in 2004 before the club released him. His final line with Detroit was .189/.215/.288 in 83 games, with four home runs. That was good for 37 OPS+. He is one of just five position players in franchise history to get more than 250 at-bats and record an OPS+ under 40.

Detroit Tigers 5th Worst Contract – Mark Lowe

There’s no such thing as a bad one-year contract. Two-year deals can be troublesome and go south quickly — as evidenced by the previous entries on this list — but they rarely harm a franchise. Take Mike Pelfrey, who is pictured on the front page. His two-year, $16-million deal was obviously bad, and the Tigers cut him after one season. But Pelfrey didn’t make this list because his 5.07 ERA over 119 IP in 2016 was actually enough to give him a positive WAR. It was ugly, and Pelfrey didn’t earn his salary, but at least he gave the team something. Mark Lowe did not.

Lowe is a prime example of the fickle nature of relievers. He began his career as a hard-throwing bullpen arm in Seattle, and by 2009 he was one of the more reliable setup men in baseball. In 2010 he was traded to the Rangers along with Cliff Lee, and he began dealing with injuries and diminished velocity. In fewer than two years he was signed and released by the Dodgers, Angels, Nationals, Rays, and Guardians before landing back with the Mariners. He returned to form in Seattle, with his average fastball jumping from 93 MPH to 96 MPH, and he finished the year with a 1.96 ERA over 55 innings.

The Tigers gave Lowe a two-year, $11 million deal to be their primary setup man. He allowed a run in his first game with the club, but his ERA was sitting at 2.79 on May 1st. Then he imploded, allowing 28 hits, 24 runs, and 8 home runs over his next 14.1 innings. Had Lowe been on a one-year deal the Tigers likely would have just cut him. But they kept him around all season, mostly to handle mop-up duty in blowouts, and he ended the year with a 7.11 ERA over 49.1 innings, which was was good for -1.0 WAR to Baseball Reference. The 2016 Tigers entered the final weekend of the season just one game out of the playoffs. It’s unfair to blame a team’s failure on one player, but the Tigers may have made the postseason that year if Lowe had been anything other than awful.

Detroit Tigers 4th Worst Contract – Miguel Cabrera

Some might argue Miguel Cabrera belongs on the top of this list, and others could say he shouldn’t be here at all. When the Detroit Tigers first acquired Cabrera they signed him to an eight-year, $152-million extension through the 2015 season. Miggy more than justified that money, with six All-Star nods, four Silver Sluggers, three batting titles, two MVP awards, and a Triple Crown. According to FanGraphs he gave the team more than $322 million of production on that deal. And that doesn’t even factor in the value he provided by willingly moving to 3rd base so the team could sign Prince Fielder.

But shortly before the 2014 campaign the Tigers signed Cabrera to a second extension, running from 2016 to at least 2023 at an annual cost of about $31 million. Cabrera had one more classic season in 2016, hitting .316 with 38 home runs and 108 RBIs, but since 2017 he’s been one of the least productive players in baseball. In our opinion that one great season was enough to keep him out of the top three on this list, and there’s also still value in the superstar factor. Cabrera isn’t close to the player he once was, but he’s still tremendously popular among fans, and both Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez cited Cabrera as a reason for signing with the Tigers.

Detroit Tigers 3th Worst Contract – Jordan Zimmermann

Detroit’s disastrous 2015 season led to the trading of ace David Price and star outfielder Yoenis Céspedes, which in turn led to the firing of general manager Dave Dombrowski. New GM Al Avila was given the financial resources to bring the club back to the playoffs, and getting a top-of-the-rotation starter was priority one. Detroit had a handful of options that winter, though the top of the market — Price and Zack Greinke — figured to be too expensive. So the Tigers moved to the second/third tier of arms, which included Wei-Yin Chen, Johnny Cueto, Scott Kazmir, Ian Kennedy, Mike Leake, Jeff Samardzija, and Jordan Zimmermann.

Detroit’s choice of Jordan Zimmermann seemed logical enough at the time. He and Cueto had very similar numbers over the previous seven seasons, and Zimmermann was slightly younger and had the more “traditional” build. As it turns out, it didn’t really matter who the Tigers chose, because none of the pitchers from that group lived up to their contracts. FanGraphs thought Zimmermann was merely bad, costing the Tigers more than $22 million per win, but Baseball Reference thinks he was an utter disaster, with the Tigers failing to get a single win out of the deal. Zimmermann dealt with injuries to his back, elbow, forearm, neck, side, and shoulder during the contract, and it’s hard to know if he was ever truly healthy. He kept coming back to pitch, but he just couldn’t miss enough bats to find any sustained success.

Detroit Tigers 2nd Worst Contract – Dontrelle Willis

This one is just sad. Dontrelle Willis was a legitimate star. He burst on the scene at 21, going 14-6 with a 3.30 ERA to win Rookie of the Year and help the Marlins win the 2003 World Series. Two years later he went 22-10 for an 83-win club, posting a 2.63 ERA and 2.99 FIP to finish 2nd in the Cy Young vote. He was an above-average pitcher in 2006, but he struggled in 2007, with a 5.17 ERA over 205.1 innings. His velocity had dipped a little, but he was never a power pitcher, and his walk rate rose slightly, but it didn’t seem like a huge concern. The Tigers were happy to trade for Willis and Miguel Cabrera, and felt they were getting huge upgrades to the middle of their lineup and their starting rotation. They immediately inked Willis to a three-year, $29-million extension, and fans started making plans for another trip to the World Series. No one could have predicted what happened.

Dontrelle Willis came down with Steve Blass Disease. It started in spring training, when Willis posted an 8.64 ERA over six starts, with 15 walks in 16.2 innings. That performance was worrying, but it was easy enough to write it off as a pitcher maybe working on some things and not really in full competitive mode. But then it kept happening. Willis walked the first batter he faced that year, but he actually managed to take a no-hitter into the 6th inning, despite walking five and striking out no one. But was pulled after he walked the first two batters he faced and then gave up a double. In his next outing Willis walked the first two batters he faced, then threw a wild pitch and injured his knee. Things never got any better.

Dontrelle Willis came out of the bullpen. He accepted a rehab assignment to High-A Lakeland. He went on the injured list with an anxiety disorder on two different occasions. But nothing helped. It was painful to watch a great pitcher suddenly lose the ability to throw strikes, and one can only imagine how awful it must have felt for Willis. The Tigers finally gave up and designated him for assignment in May of 2010. His final numbers for Detroit included a 6.86 ERA, 68 strikeouts against 92 walks, and 10 wild pitches in 101 innings.

Detroit Tigers Worst Contract – Victor Martinez

This is another tough one, because Victor Martinez was a great player and a terrific leader for the Tigers. But, like so many other players on this list, it’s wasn’t the initial pact that was the problem. Detroit originally signed Martinez to a four-year, $50-million deal before the 2011 season, and, even though he missed all of 2012, he earned that contract. V-Mart hit .321/.381/.487 over the life of the deal, and in 2014 he finished 2nd in the MVP voting after batting .335 with 32 home runs and 103 RBIs.

That’s the sort of production teams dream of, so it’s easy to understand why the Tigers wanted to re-sign V-Mart. But giving a four-year, $68-million deal to a 36-year-old DH after a career year probably wasn’t the best use of resources. And that cold reality came rather quickly, as Martinez battled knee troubles in 2015 and hit just .245 with 11 home runs. He did come back with one last strong campaign in 2016, hitting .289 with 27 bombs, but over the next two seasons he dealt with a scary heart issue and hit just .253 with 19 home runs in in 240 games. He kept playing as hard as he could, but time comes for everyone. From 2015-2018, Victor Martinez was the worst qualified hitter in baseball. At least he got a hit in his final at-bat.