NL West. West Ham United Wolves. Virginia Tech Washington Wisconsin. Purdue Syracuse Villanova Virginia Wisconsin. Redblacks Stampeders. Featured Teams. Home Odds. Bayern Munich Dortmund. Celtic Rangers. Toggle navigation Subscribe. By Kaitlyn McGrath Dec 20, Vernon Wells has been retired from professional baseball for six years now. Selected fifth overall pick in the draft as an year-old, Wells would spend 12 seasons in a Blue Jays uniform.
In the winter of , coming off a Gold Glove, six-win 6. But by , the back-loaded contract weighed heavily on the Blue Jays books as the team looked to go in a new direction under general manager Alex Anthopoulos. AA eventually got his man the following year in a subsequent trade with the Houston Astros to acquire Gose in exchange for first base prospect Brett Wallace.
It was their idea to sign him to a 7-year extension, and Wells would be silly not to take that kind of guaranteed money. For whatever reason, they deemed it necessary to overpay in dollars and years to keep Vernon Wells in a Blue Jays uniform for an unnecessarily long time. In their year history, the Toronto Blue Jays are guilty of letting a lot of incredible players get away: Jeff Kent, Chris Carpenter and Carlos Delgado just to name a few.
But Wells is one that they probably should have let walk out the door. Thankfully, Anthopoulos proved that virtually no contract is untradable. It was right place at the right time for the Blue Jays as the Angels seemed overly desperate to acquire an outfielder. They missed out on signing Carl Crawford, and Vernon Wells was the next best option. Armed with a highly-touted centre field prospect now in their system in the form of Gose, the Blue Jays were happy to oblige.
Wells may be long gone from Toronto, but the impact of his contract extension is still being felt within the current Blue Jays regime. Vernon had a no-trade clause, an opt-out clause, performance bonuses built in, and seven guaranteed years with no buyout or club options.
Since taking over as General Manager in , Anthopoulos has not signed a single contract which included performance bonuses, incentives, player options, no-trade clauses or opt-out clauses. After the Wells contract, the dynamic has shifted within the organization.
No longer do long-term contracts allow players to have most the control; contracts are now structured much differently. Anthopoulos has done a great job of locking up guys like Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to team-friendly deals.
BUT this was the knee jerk reaction in when they tried to get Carl Crawford and didnt… so I guess you could say they dodged a bullet by shooting themselves in the foot.
Every time I ever hear about this guy I remember how this was one of worst contracts ever a MLB team has ever given out. The Not year he was in the blue jays under that deal he 31 hr 88 rbi 79 runs. Not a bad year at all. LAA sure knows how to pick them. He certainly has experience with player friendly contracts. I can see why a player would want an agent with his track record.
Vernon always came across as a sincere guy. That would be an interesting list. Albert Pujols has produced negative fWar in the last five years. Does it make any of them lesser players when they were great? Nice seeing him getting back into the game in some way, hope he can get the best for his clients. Oh wait…. Wells was not as bad as some suggest.
At least he tried to come back from injuries and earn part of his salary. I think the worst contracts ever signed would have to be Carl Pavano, Jacoby Ellsbery, and Carl Crawford all signed in the last two decades. Back when players signed incentive laden contracts they actually played everyday. Guaranteed money made all players soiled and entitled that whine and cry more than they play. Make them earn the money and the quality of play will rise accordingly. Had a horrible career decline, rivaling Barry Zito for one of the worst FA contracts.
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