Matt Cain pitched his whole career with the San Francisco Giants. For 7 seasons he was a mainstay of their starting rotation. His ERA was consistently around 3.00. He pitched a perfect game in 2012.
After 7 seasons, the Giants extended his contract for 5 years at $112 million. It made sense in 2012. Along with the perfect game, he won 16 games with a 2.79 ERA. However the last 5 seasons were tragic.
There were some injuries but he never won more than 8 games the last 5 seasons. His ERA started at 4.00 and rose to over 5.00 in the last 3 seasons. He won only 19 games total in the last 5 seasons. The Giants thought they had signed an All Star starting pitcher. What they actually got was a starter who struggled for 5 seasons.
