Weekly Rotation: The five best $100M contracts in MLB history

Kevin Brown signed the first nine-figure deal in MLB history, a seven-year, $105 million agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers, before the 1999 season, and the new century has brought 64 more such contracts. Despite the relative regularity of $100 million contracts in the sports’ modern landscape, observers usually take a moment to collectively pick up their jaws from the floor whenever the newest one is signed.

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That’s because it’s still a lot of money for a team to bet on one player. As we covered previously in PointAfter’s Weekly Rotation, the results can often be disastrous. However, paying the right superstar is usually a franchise-altering move on the other side of the spectrum.

Using the same system for last week’s look into baseball’s five worst $100 million contracts, this time we’ll determine which teams spent the least money to reap the most WAR from nine-figure deals. A reminder: the “salary per 1.0 WAR” figure that functions as the centerpiece of these rankings isn’t perfect for active contracts with escalating salary structures. In those cases, I used a contract’s average annual value (i.e. $100 million / 5 years = $20 million).

Three of the five players mentioned below won at least one World Series over the duration of their contracts, while the other two came tantalizingly close. So, even if you favor postseason success over gaudy regular season stats as a barometer for success, these guys earned their lucrative paychecks.

Notes: Contracts must have at least three seasons complete to be eligible, and 2016 stats were not taken into account.

5. Carlos Beltran (2005-11), Mets
Salary per 1.0 WAR: $3.7 million 
Contract details: 7 years, $119 million 
WAR over contract: 32.3 

Most people will remember about Carlos Beltran being frozen by Adam Wainwright’s curveball to end the 2006 NLCS as the lasting image from his Mets tenure. That called strike ended New York’s inspiring bid for a National League pennant, down two runs with the bases loaded in Game 7. That’s a brutal way to go down, even for tortured Mets fans. Still, it’s unfortunate if that winds up being Beltran’s lasting legacy with the franchise, because the Mets wouldn’t have been in that position without his regular-season heroics. The switch-hitting outfielder racked up a career-high 8.2 WAR and finished fourth in MVP voting in 2006, also garnering five All-Star nods in six-and-a-half seasons with the Mets. It’s not his fault New York’s front office couldn’t build another playoff-worthy roster around him during the rest of his tenure there.

4. Buster Posey (2013-21), Giants
Salary per 1.0 WAR: $3.4 million 
Contract details: 9 years, $167 million 
WAR over contract: 16.3 

Buster Posey’s nine-year extension with San Francisco stands as the longest commitment to a catcher in MLB history. At the time, it was also a record guarantee for a player with fewer than four years of service time. Of course, in Posey’s first four years he won Rookie of the Year, a batting title, MVP and two World Series championships. The Giants saw enough from their young catcher to know they wanted him to be a cornerstone of their club. Posey hasn’t quite replicated his stellar offensive production from 2012, but he’s finished in the top 20 of MVP voting every year and led the club to another unlikely championship in 2014. Even if the face of the franchise is eventually moved to first base to conserve his legs, this contract will likely always be hailed as a coup for the Giants — especially if they continue conjuring their “even-year magic.”

3. Miguel Cabrera (2008-15), Tigers
Salary per 1.0 WAR: $3.3 million 
Contract details: 8 years, $152 million 
WAR over contract: 46.4 

The Tigers gleefully extended a 24-year-old Miguel Cabrera after acquiring him from the Marlins during the 2007-08 offseason, guaranteeing Miggy would spend his prime years in Detroit. Oh, what prime years they were. Cabrera already had four All-Star appearances under his belt, and would rack up six more in the Motor City along with back-to-back MVPs in 2012-13. Cabrera averaged nearly 34 home runs and a .980 OPS during his first eight years with the Tigers, which saw the franchise win one American League pennant amid four straight division titles between 2011-14. That period didn’t bring Detroit its first World Series title since 1984, however, which owner Mike Ilitch is itching to accomplish as he reaches his late 80s. That eagerness likely contributed to Cabrera’s most recent extension with the Tigers, which almost certainly won’t age as well as his first mega-deal did. Cabrera’s OPS of .781 entering Tuesday ranks as the lowest mark of his career.

2. Alex Rodriguez (2001-10), Rangers
Salary per 1.0 WAR: $3.1 million 
Contract details: 10 years, $252 million 
WAR over contract: 56.4 

Three years after Tom Hicks bought the Texas Rangers franchise for $250 million, he green-lit the signing of Alex Rodriguez for $252 million over 10 years, then the largest contract in sports history. A-Rod’s production lived up to his record-breaking salary, though he only spent three seasons in Texas before being traded to the Yankees. Rodriguez led all hitters in home runs, RBIs and runs scored between 2001-10. Of course, those numbers were tainted due to Rodriguez’s admitted performance-enhancing drug (PED) use. But you won’t see the Rangers or Yankees complaining about the boost in offensive production they received from A-Rod as a result.

1. Albert Pujols (2004-11), Cardinals
Salary per 1.0 WAR: $1.8 million 
Contract details: 8 years, $116 million 
WAR over contract: 65.7 

Albert Pujols has a legitimate claim to being MLB’s best hitter of the aughts, ranking in the top three for batting average, home runs, RBIs and OPS during the decade. Needless to say, the Cardinals benefited immensely from the extension he signed with St. Louis after his third season in the bigs. At that point, The Machine was the reigning National League batting champion (.359) and had just finished as runner-up for National League MVP for the second straight year. Pujols went on to win three MVPs and led the Cardinals to two World Series titles. He was incredibly consistent over his eight-year contract, never finishing below ninth in MVP voting and averaging more than 41 homers and 118 RBIs each year.

Pujols’ raw pay rate of less than $2 million per win above replacement is the best return on investment of any $100 million signee by a comfortable margin, a distinction that seems unlikely to be challenged as money continues to pour into the sport.

Now, his 10-year, $254 million contract with the Angels, that’s another case entirely. 

PREVIOUSLY: The five worst $100-million contracts in baseball history

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Will Laws is a writer for PointAfter, a sports data aggregation and visualization website that’s part of the Graphiq network. PointAfter is a platform for shot charts, scatter plots and other data visualizations about NBA players, NFL teams and dozens of other topics. Follow him on Twitter, @WillLaws.