In 2015 Jason Heyward entered free agency as a talented player. He had never batted over .293 and only hit over 20 home runs once. He was an excellent defender. For some reason the Cubs thought that this production was worth an 8 year $184 million contract. They would be paying him an average of $23 million a year when Heyward had never been paid more than $8 million in a year.
The results seem like they were predictable. In the first 5 years he never got over .270 and had one year at .230. Except for 2019 (21) his home runs were often under 10 per year. Finally his base stealing also stopped. He stole 11 in the first year and has not been more than 8 since.
Imagine you have an outfielder who has an average in the .250 range, hits very few home runs and does not steal bases. Now complicate those results with a commitment to pay him $23 million a year with three more years to pay.
We might call this a real head scratcher or a SwingBadder bad contract.
