There are 251 players in Major League Baseball making at least $4.0 million this season and 98 of those are making at least $10 million.
Many of those players are severely overpaid and on the next few pages we will take a look at the most overpaid in baseball.
To do this, we will look at a player's overall production based on Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and translate that to a dollar value. We will then compare that value to what the player is actually making.
In many cases, teams would be better off not playing these guys at all.
#25 B.J. Upton, Atlanta Braves
Position: CF
2013 salary: $12.5 million
Stats: .174, 8 HR, 6 SB, .269 OBP
2013 WAR: -0.1
2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$1.4 million
VALUE**: -$13.9 million
* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million which is roughly what a team would have to spend on average in free agency for a win. Players that are worse than a Replacement-Level player will have a negative WAR and a negative WAR Value suggesting the team is actually losing money by having them on the field. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season
** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary. Think of this as the amount a player is overpaid. In some cases it will actually be greater than the player's salary since that player's production is actually negative
#24 Martin Prado, Arizona Diamondbacks
Position: 3B
2013 salary: $7.0 million
Stats: .241, 6 HR, .292 OBP
2013 WAR: -0.7
2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$7.2 million
VALUE**: -$14.2 million
* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season
** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary.
#23 Jeff Francoeur, Kansas City Royals
Position: RF
2013 salary: $6.8 million
Stats: .209, 3 HR, .250 OBP
2013 WAR: -0.8
2013 WAR Value (Projected)*: -$7.8 million
VALUE**: -$-14.6 million
* One win in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is valued at $4.8 million. For WAR Value we projected each player's WAR over a full season
** VALUE is equal to WAR Value minus Salary.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
