Major League Baseball’s highest-paid players are struggling
The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) fame signed slugger Aaron Judge, 31, to a massive nine-year, $360 million contract extension after last season. Judge broke the American League (AL) record for most home runs with 62 last season and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). Jersey’s contract is the largest for any hitter in history. His $40 million annualized salary ranks third overall among major league players.
But he hasn’t been getting his money’s worth this season. As of June 6, he has 20 home runs in 57 games. That’s 30th in the MLB. He suffered a toe injury in early June that sidelined him for about two months. The team that won the American League East last year is in fourth place this year.
It’s not the first time a high-paid player like Jeter has failed to live up to his billing. They’re earning tens of billions of dollars in salary, but they’re also embarrassing their teams with poor performance or injuries.
Once considered one of the league’s best pitchers, Jacob deGrom (35-Texas Rangers) signed a five-year, $185 million contract this offseason from the New York Mets. However, after opening the season with two wins in six starts, he suffered an elbow injury and was lost for the season.
The Angels have been plagued by an exodus of high-paid players. Mike Trout (32-LA Angels), the fifth-highest paid player in MLB ($37.11 million), has been out for two months with a wrist injury, and Anthony Rendon (33), the third-highest paid player ($38.57 million), has been in a four-year hitting slump. Rendon is batting .236 this year (through six days) and has missed a lot of time due to frequent injuries. It’s not hard to see why he’s a bust. Since joining the team, he has only played in 200 games, or 45% of the team’s 444 games. This year, he hasn’t played since the fourth of last month.
Trey Turner (30-Philadelphia Phillies-11 years, $300 million), Xander Bogaerts (31-San Diego Padres-11 years, $200 million), and Carlos Correa (29-Minnesota Twins-6 years, $200 million), all of whom signed big-money contracts before the season, are also struggling with batting averages in the low-to-mid 2s.
The Korean Baseball Organization has a similar story. Before this season, there were seven big contracts totaling more than $4 billion in the Stobrigue, but with the exception of Yang Ji (36-Dusan-4+2 years, $15.2 billion) and Chae Eun-sung (33-Hanwha-6 years, $9 billion), they have not performed well.
Lotte’s woes are particularly deep. Catcher Yoo Kang-nam (31) and shortstop Noh Jin-hyuk (34), who were signed for 4 years and 8 billion won, are batting in the low 2.2s, especially Noh, who is batting just 0.103 since July. Catcher Park Dong-won (33), who signed a four-year, 6.5 billion won contract with LG this year, was hitting well at the beginning of the season, even competing for the home run lead, but has been batting in the low teens in the second half.
The same is true for the players at the top of the annual salary rankings (excluding foreigners). Choo Shin-soo (41-SSG), who earns 1.7 billion won (third), is batting .267 with seven home runs, while Kim Jae-hwan (35-Dusan), who earns 1.5 billion won (tied for fourth), is hitting just .227 with eight home runs. Oh Seung-hwan (41-Samsung), the sixth-highest paid pitcher (1.4 billion won), is 3-3 with 15 saves and a 4.19 ERA this year.온라인카지노
We’ve seen these “high-cost, low-efficiency” players before. With limited players and fierce competition for talent, it’s a phenomenon that occurs when players are overpriced and immersed in competition without analyzing their capabilities accurately. In addition, new contracts often reward past performance and do not accurately reflect performance expectations after signing. It has also been pointed out that players with high-paying contracts fail to recognize that they are already past their prime and have begun to age, or that they lose their sense of purpose and motivation after signing a large contract and do not play with the same determination as before.