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Tier 2: Mostly Efficient Spending Teams

Team	Dollars Spent	fWAR Generated	$/fWAR	World Series Appeared In	Playoff Appearances
Arizona Diamondbacks	412258202	55.4	$ 7,441,483.79		1
Los Angeles Dodgers	766560753	99.2	$ 7,727,426.95	3	9
Milwaukee Brewers	338997804	51.7	$ 6,557,017.49		4
Minnesota Twins	390159885	55.9	$ 6,979,604.38		3
Seattle Mariners	335430362	51.8	$ 6,475,489.61		0
Texas Rangers	339114255	43.1	$ 7,868,080.16		3
Toronto Blue Jays	399679901	50.4	$ 7,930,156.77		3
Washington Nationals	553947801	73.5	$ 7,536,704.78	1	5

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This is a tricky tier to label properly because there are competing themes at play. On the one hand, you have teams like the Dodgers, who have used their financial might to take risky shots on players (and thus why their $/fWAR wasn’t even better) but have still succeeded in free agency and where it matters most. On the other hand, you have the perpetually-playoff-chasing Mariners, who have been efficient with their finances in free agency and have still failed to get sustainable positive results on the field.

The most surprising entry in this tier was the Mariners. You would think with their zero playoff appearances that they were completely irresponsible with their free agent cash, but actually, Seattle has been just fine with its money.

Seattle Mariners

In fact, they haven’t even missed too badly on any contract. Here are the “worst” Mariner contracts of the past 10 off-seasons:

The Not-So-Good Mariners Contracts

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3
Fernando Rodney	RP	$ 12,596,449	2	2013-14	0.2	1	-0.8
Marc Rzepczynski	RP	$ 11,000,000	2	2016-17	-0.3	0	-0.3
Yusei Kikuchi	SP	$ 34,185,185	3	2018-19	2.4	0.2	1.1	1.1

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Kikuchi got a good chunk of money from the Mariners and never really lived up to it, but he still produced a positive fWAR. Rzepczynski and Rodney didn’t produce much, but Seattle didn’t commit much to either of them, anyway.

First complete-game shutout in MLB ✅ #TrueToTheBlue x Yusei Kikuchi pic.twitter.com/KXrB3wzPVt

— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 18, 2019

Seattle’s “winners” have been especially good:

The Good Mariners Contracts

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5
Chris Flexen	SP	$ 2,000,000	1	2020-21	3	3
Nelson Cruz	OF	$ 57,150,000	4	2014-15	15.7	5	4.4	3.8	2.5
Robinson Cano	2B	$ 116,166,328	5	2013-14	20.7	5.6	2.8	6.3	3.1	2.9

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It’s a good thing the Mariners cut bait with Cano when they did, because not only did he net them a strong $/fWAR value, but in his trade to the Mets, the Mariners picked up Jarred Kelenic.

The next team in the Position Player WAR series are the @Mariners, who were formed in 1977.

Check out all your favorite Mariners players in this progressive timeline!

Players include: @AROD, @11EdgarMartinez, @RobinsonCano, @_mcameron44, @ncboomstick23, @RaulIbanezMLB 👀 pic.twitter.com/Pozok8tB7d

— Greg Harvey (@BetweenTheNums) December 14, 2021

Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers haven’t really missed. Take a look at their year-by-year investments:

The Brewers Don’t Miss

Year	Dollars Spent	fWAR	$/fWAR
2011-12	$ 37,550,000	9	$ 4,172,222.22
2012-13	$ 43,099,999	2.3	$ 18,739,130.00
2013-14	$ 53,250,000	4.4	$ 12,102,272.73
2014-15	$ 26,778,689	1.9	$ 14,094,046.84
2015-16	$ 10,950,000	3.6	$ 3,041,666.67
2016-17	$ 22,082,254	4.3	$ 5,135,407.91
2017-18	$ 72,525,555	10.4	$ 6,973,611.06
2018-19	$ 29,596,789	8.1	$ 3,653,924.57
2019-20	$ 30,264,518	4.9	$ 6,176,432.24
2020-21	$ 12,900,000	2.8	$ 4,607,142.86

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Zero negative contract years, with every year producing greater than 1 fWAR? Not even the Rays, Pirates, or A’s could lay claim to that. When they did miss, the Brewers’ $/fWAR didn’t even get too bad. Let’s take a look at the 2012-13 off-season:

Maybe They Do, A Little Bit

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3
Alex Gonzalez	SS	$ 1,450,000	1	-0.9	-0.9
Kyle Lohse	SP	$ 33,699,999	3	3.2	1.6	1.9	-0.3
Mike Gonzalez	RP	$ 2,250,000	1	-0.7	-0.7
Tom Gorzelanny	RP	$ 5,700,000	2	0.7	0.5	0.2

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Lohse might not have lived up to all the expectations the Brewers had for him (and most teams would kill for that kind of value from a pitcher contract), but at $10 million/fWAR, it’s above the Brewers’ regular rate. The extra misses in 2012-13 didn’t do much in a vacuum, but when added to Lohse’s “bad” contract, it completes a rare miss of an off-season for the Brewers. It didn’t even come in the midst of a strong Brew Crew playoff window, as the Brewers spent 6 seasons trying to get back to the playoffs after their 2011 loss in the NLCS. None of these guys were on the team when the Brewers reached the playoffs in 2018.

Minnesota Twins

Look at the Twins, doing some great stuff in the off-season. That’s the kind of stuff that will really complement your core players! While the Twins have unfortunately run into the New York Yankees in the playoffs too many times, there’s only so much you can do when you get there:

"My job is to get us to the playoffs. What happens after that is fucking luck" – Billy Beane, Moneyball.

— Yustin (@JustinTheGray) September 24, 2013

One of the things Minnesota’s free agent profile lacks is a huge “home run” signing. They’ve got some good value contracts, but no contract as comically undervalued as some of the other ones with teams in this tier and in the tier above them. The Twins have been pretty good at just getting solid value out of the guys in free agency:

The T-Wins

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4
Ervin Santana	SP	$ 49,098,360	4	2014-15	7.2	1.5	3.5	2.7	-0.5
Nelson Cruz	DH	$ 14,000,000	1	2018-19	4.3	4.3
Nelson Cruz	DH	$ 4,444,444	1	2019-20	2	2
Phil Hughes	RP	$ 24,000,000	3	2013-14	7.9	6.4	1.2	0.3

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NOTE: The Nelson Cruz contract from 2019-20 came from Minnesota exercising what was supposed to be a $12 million option for the 2020 season. Option years were counted as 1-year contracts.

#OTD in 2017, the @Twins Ervin Santana allows just one hit in a complete-game shutout vs. the White Sox. #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/KX5UGquviF

— Stadium (@Stadium) April 15, 2021

One thing you’ll notice throughout Minnesota’s free agent forays is how much of a cheat code signing Nelson Cruz is. All the man does is mash, year-in and year-out, and the team lucky enough to get him at far under his true market value gets to reap the rewards. Alternatively, with the Ervin Santana contract, you can see how signing a long-term deal can sometimes come back to “bite” a team. The teams in lower-ranked tiers, like Minnesota, had their $/fWAR hit harder by each player’s aging curve, as the fWAR production dried out as the players got older, and teams often felt they needed to keep these players on the roster because of the large financial commitment they made to the player.

Alternatively, the Twins didn’t suffer too many “bad losses,” as they kept their financial commitments relatively light and short-term:

The T-Losses

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1
Addison Reed	RP	$ 16,750,000	1	2017-18	-0.2	-0.2
Andrelton Simmons	SS	$ 10,500,000	1	2020-21	-0.5	-0.5
Ryan Doumit	C	$ 3,000,000	1	2011-12	-1.2	-1.2

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I’m going to be honest, I thought that Addison Reed contract was a typo upon first look. Technically, Reed signed that contract for 2 years, but the Twins cut him in May of 2019 after Reed failed to see the field in April 2019, so it’s reflected as a 1 year contract. The same goes for Andrelton Simmons, but I will cut the Twins some slack here because Simmons only signed for a year. And Ryan Doumit just stunk it up — luckily for the Twins, a short-lived stink — for a little bit.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona survived one heck of a bad contract in Yasmany Tomas to post a top-10 showing in $/fWAR. And similarly to the Mariners, the Diamondbacks haven’t had a whole lot of playoff success, even with their free agent spending efficiency. They’re also the first team to spend more than the average and still post a strong efficiency rating. Let’s take a look at some of their wins:

A-Win-Zona Diamondbacks

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4
Aaron Hill	IF	$ 11,000,000	2	2011-12	6.9	5	1.9
Eduardo Escobar	SS/3B	$ 13,931,275	3	2018-19	5.2	3.6	-0.5	2.1
Zack Greinke	SP	$ 107,622,858	4	2015-16	13.7	2.3	4.9	2.8	3.7

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Some of the teams with good, efficient spending have been carried by some fantastic investments in high-priced free agents (you’ll see one when we get to the Nationals). But the Diamondbacks have taken swings on free agents in different cycles of team competitiveness and have had success in each. Eduardo Escobar‘s contract would have been even better without a rough 2020 in the middle of those 2 other great years. And Zack Greinke was just plain good. The Diamondbacks weren’t able to pick up a big win in the Greinke trade as I see it; they picked up Seth Beer in that deal, but didn’t get a whole lot else (Depending on how much you love Josh Rojas). The jury is still out on the Escobar trade, as the Diamondbacks did acquire semi-promising prospect Cooper Hummel from the Brewers in the exchange.

Apopka High School’s Zack Greinke smashed a home run tonight for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Always impresses me to see a pitcher go yard at the major league level. pic.twitter.com/o87qb8r5la

— J.C. Carnahan (@JCCarnz) April 3, 2019

Arizona’s Losses

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4
Jason Kubel	OF	$ 13,688,525	2	2011-12	0.4	1.5	-1.1
Madison Bumgarner	SP	$ 21,222,222	2	2019-20	1	-0.5	1.5
Yasmany Tomas	OF	$ 68,379,781	6	2014-15	-0.3	-1.1	0.5	0.1	0.2

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Staying with the “One contract from each ‘era'” theme, we have a bad contract from each of the different competitive cycles of the Diamondbacks. Yasmany Tomas was an obvious one, and Kubel’s contract isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great. There aren’t a lot of bad contracts to choose from with Arizona, and my editor said I have to pick 3, so I went with Madison Bumgarner. He’s still got some time left to be good, and 2020 was an aberration of a year for a lot of good players, so I was hesitant to select him. But the amount of money committed to Bumgarner relative to what the Snakes have gotten from him hasn’t really been worth it yet.

Washington Nationals

The Nationals were pushed up this high by a pair of fantastic, high-value contracts. The rest of their free agent spending is littered with “meh” and “not so good” contracts.

Gonna Need More Curls in That W

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5	fWAR Year 6	fWAR Year 7
Daniel Murphy	1B	$ 33,642,474	3	2015-16	10	5.6	4.4	0
Howie Kendrick	2B	$ 7,000,000	2	2017-18	3.4	0.4	3
Max Scherzer	SP	$ 210,000,000	7	2014-15	36.8	6.5	5.6	6.4	7.5	6.5	1.8	2.5

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Scherzer produced roughly half of the Nationals’ overall fWAR from the past decade of free agent signings. He was an absolute workhorse for the Nats each and every year, even last year, before he was traded to the Dodgers. And after all Scherzer did for the team – winning them a World Series, throwing multiple no-hitters in a single season, being a true workhorse ace — he left the Nats with a little parting gift, as the Dodgers sent Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz, among others, to the District in exchange for Scherzer and Trea Turner.

7 seasons
6 All-Stars
2 No-Hitters
2 Cy Young Awards
1 World Series Championship

Welcome back, World Series Champion Max Scherzer.#Scherzday // #NATITUDE pic.twitter.com/NcMV0OXhIZ

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) April 7, 2022

Daniel Murphy put up a zero in that final season with the Nats, but it doesn’t even matter because he was so good in 2016 and 2017 that the contract was worth every penny. Unfortunately, he left the team just a smidge too early, as they would win the World Series the year after he finished his deal with the team. Speaking of the World Series, though, 2019 NLCS MVP Howie Kendrick was absolutely underpaid for what he did in the regular season and in the playoffs in 2019. Who knew that Kendrick had such clutch-ness in him?

The Curly Ls

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2
Adam LaRoche	1B	$ 24,000,000	2	2012-13	2.5	0.5	2
Stephen Strasburg	SP	$ 32,301,586	2	2019-20	0	0	0
Will Harris	RP	$ 10,962,963	3	2019-20	0.1	0.1	0

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Unfortunately, I have to cherry pick a little bit to find some bad deals. The only one that really stinks is the Strasburg contract. Yes, he basically agreed to an extension in the winter of 2019, but Strasburg officially opted out of the 4 years remaining of his original contract extension and was a free agent for just over a month, so I get to include him here. And I hate to pick on a franchise hero in Strasburg, because there was no way the Nats were going to lose the most celebrated pitcher in franchise history without bidding every last dollar they had. So, of course this contract was going to look really bad on the back-end, because the Nats had to pay a lot to retain Strasburg’s services, but it looks really bad already because Strasburg has been battling injuries and has really struggled to get back to pitching in the District.

Kudos to the Nationals for really going all in on that 2019 season, as they doled out several contracts in the 2018-19 offseason to help them finally push them over the hump. Take a look at their offseason signings in 2018-19:

World Series Titles Don’t Come Cheap

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3
Anibal Sanchez	SP	$ 13,148,148	2	2018-19	2.6	2.4	0.2
Brian Dozier	2B	$ 9,000,000	1	2018-19	1.7	1.7
Jeremy Hellickson	SP	$ 1,900,000	1	2018-19	-0.1	-0.1
Kurt Suzuki	C	$ 6,222,222	2	2018-19	0.7	0.7	0
Matt Adams	1B	$ 4,000,000	1	2018-19	-0.1	-0.1
Patrick Corbin	SP	$ 46,037,037	3	2018-19	6.1	4.7	1.2	0.2
Tony Sipp	RP	$ 1,250,000	1	2018-19	0.3	0.3
Trevor Rosenthal	RP	$ 7,000,000	1	2018-19	-0.3	-0.3

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There are a lot of mediocre deals on here, but I’m pretty sure every GM in baseball would push almost all their chips in (like Mike Rizzo did here) to finally win that elusive World Series title. Patrick Corbin and Anibal Sanchez, key supplemental pieces in the Nats’ postseason run, provide the blueprint for what GMs are hoping for when they pay up for free agents: good value during a postseason run, and then hoping the players don’t suck after they win the title.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers have approached their teambuilding in a way made more famous by the Astros: homegrown core, with supplemental guys brought in via free agency and trade. But the Dodgers have done it LA-style: tons of star power and flash. But the Dodgers have done it so well that they may make the playoffs 15 straight years at this rate. Since the only baseball team in Los Angeles has a friendlier and freer-spending ownership group, the Dodgers have taken chances on promising young free agents and formerly-good vets and tried to apply their player development strategies to build out quality depth within the organization; other owners may be less generous with their spending, which is why the Dodgers have been able to do it better than pretty much everyone else. The main reason the Dodgers are this “low” on the list is because some of the chances they’ve taken on young guys have gone very poorly, but the team has been able to minimize those mistakes by investing in their core (and investing a ton in the team regardless).

Big Dodgers Contract Wins

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4
Justin Turner	3B	$ 52,037,037	4	2016-17	14.2	5.4	4.2	3.3	1.3
Kenta Maeda	SP	$ 30,085,000	4	2015-16	9.8	2.9	1.7	2.5	2.7
Zack Greinke	SP	$ 76,000,000	3	2012-13	13.2	3.4	4.5	5.3

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Zack Greinke – Los Angeles Dodgers (2) Solo

— MLB Home Run (@MLBHR) August 16, 2015

Kenta Maeda is the first @Dodgers pitcher to strike out 12+, allow 0 R and drive in 2+ runs since Brad Penny in 2007. pic.twitter.com/TuPufGXZ1C

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 16, 2019

Justin Turner has been one of the Dodgers’ best success stories of the past decade. He dramatically improved with the Dodgers after being discarded by the Mets in the first half of the decade, then signed a contract that can only be qualified as a huge success for the Dodgers’ front office. At the tail end of that contract, Turner and the Dodgers finally won the World Series title that validated fans’ lofty expectations for the team’s core players. Just don’t ask Turner about preventing the spread of COVID. Kenta Maeda‘s contract paid off handsomely; the Dodgers got 9.8 fWAR from him in 4 seasons, and then dealt him away as part of the deal that netted them Brusdar Graterol, David Price, and Mookie Betts. All in all, another rousing success for the Dodgers.

Remember those young guys the Dodgers missed on? Well, feast your eyes on these contracts:

Big Dodgers Contract Losses

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5	fWAR Year 6
Alexander Guerrero	OF	$ 28,000,000	4	2013-14	-0.3	-0.2	-0.1
Erisbel Arruebarrena	SS	$ 21,000,000	4	2013-14	-0.3	-0.3	0	0
Yaisel Sierra	SP	$ 30,000,000	6	2015-16	0	0	0	0	0	0

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That’s $79 million for -0.6 fWAR, for those of you not already keeping track. A contract like Sierra’s, across 6 years, would be a significant hamstring for a lower-spending team like the Pirates or the Rays (to be clear, they’re not “small market” or “small revenue” teams, they’re just teams with tightfisted owners), but the Dodgers hardly missed a beat. That’s partially due to the fact that when these contracts are spread out across 4 or 6 years, the financial commitment still isn’t particularly lofty, and also partially due to the Dodgers’ player development system, which churns out MLB-ready players.

With the Nationals, we took a look at their spending immediately preceding their run to the World Series. Let’s take a look at the Dodgers’ spending patterns leading up to their first World Series appearance of the decade:

The 2016-17 Spending Spree

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5
Chase Utley	2B	$ 2,250,000	1	2016-17	1.1	1.1
Franklin Gutierrez	DH	$ 2,600,000	1	2016-17	-0.2	-0.2
Justin Turner	3B	$ 52,037,037	4	2016-17	14.2	5.4	4.2	3.3	1.3
Kenley Jansen	RP	$ 68,666,667	5	2016-17	7.4	3.4	0.3	1.3	0.6	1.8
Rich Hill	SP	$ 48,000,000	3	2016-17	4.9	2.3	1.7	0.9
Sergio Romo	RP	$ 1,819,704	1	2016-17	-0.4	-0.4

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No huge misses here, just like with the Nationals. In fact, there are a handful of franchise cornerstones coming back to the Dodgers here in Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen. Rich Hill ended up being a pretty good signing as well.

"They will be in my heart forever. We fought to win a World Series and all I can remember is good memories with them."

Go behind the scenes of @kenleyjansen74's return to Dodger Stadium on tonight's all-new #BackstageDodgers. pic.twitter.com/nTD8Tqg9lo

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) April 29, 2022

Immediately preceding Los Angeles’ 2018 and 2020 World Series runs, the Dodgers spent a grand total of $8.9 million and picked up only 0.6 fWAR from those commitments. But with all but the fringe roster players locked up long-term or shipped out for superstars with big contracts, the Dodgers didn’t really need to spend a ton of money in free agency.

Texas Rangers

The team that was on the unfortunate end of a legendary playoff moment during this time period would have been even better had they not missed on just about every free agent hitting contract they doled out. The Rangers only got more than 2 fWAR from 2 batters across 10 free agency periods:

Hitter, Texas Ranger

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5	fWAR Year 6	fWAR Year 7
Ian Desmond	OF	$ 8,000,000	2015-16	1	3.5	3.5
Shin-Soo Choo	OF	$ 116,877,778	2013-14	7	8.9	0.4	3.4	0.6	0.5	2.3	1.7	0

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For those of you without Texas Instruments at home, that Shin-Soo Choo deal comes out to around $13 million per fWAR, which is below the average $/fWAR ($10 million-ish). Every other contract the Rangers doled out to a position player produced virtually no value at all. In fact, the Rangers spent nearly $18 million per fWAR on hitters over this time frame.

So, how did the Rangers end up this high on the list? They nailed their pitching contracts. Take a look at some of Texas’s great deals:

No Walker, Texas Ranger

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3
Joe Nathan	RP	$ 16,850,000	2	2011-12	4.1	1.7	2.4
Lance Lynn	SP	$ 15,703,704	2	2018-19	8.1	6.7	1.4
Mike Minor	RP / SP	$ 21,283,309	3	2017-18	6.9	2.5	4.1	0.3

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Texas knows their workhorses.

Lance Lynn.

That's it, that's the tweet. pic.twitter.com/nO6HeqpP6I

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) July 25, 2020

What’s so interesting to me about Texas’s spending patterns is that they didn’t really line up with the contention windows. Normally, teams will start to spend pretty heavily once they know they’re contending for a title (see the Nationals above), but the Rangers didn’t quite follow the blueprint:

Every Spending Pattern is Weirder in Texas

Year	Dollars Spent	fWAR	$/fWAR
2011-12	$ 22,850,000	4.8	$ 4,760,416.67
2012-13	$ 28,176,230	3.6	$ 7,826,730.56
2013-14	$ 123,500,729	8.1	$ 15,247,003.58
2014-15	$ 5,900,000	2.2	$ 2,681,818.18
2015-16	$ 19,349,656	6.1	$ 3,172,074.75
2016-17	$ 36,000,000	3.1	$ 11,612,903.23
2017-18	$ 31,635,471	8.9	$ 3,554,547.30
2018-19	$ 33,936,611	6.7	$ 5,065,165.82
2019-20	$ 30,442,980	1.9	$ 16,022,621.05
2020-21	$ 7,322,578	-2.3	$ 7,322,578

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The Rangers appeared in the playoffs in 2015 and 2016, yet the free agency periods immediately preceding those seasons totaled just $24 million in spending (albeit with $123 million committed in 2013-14).

Toronto Blue Jays

How fun that these two squads ended up back-to-back on the spending efficiency list. You’d think the Blue Jays would want to stay away from the Rangers after this. Toronto, unlike their Texas friends, were relatively balanced in their efficiency, as their pitching $/fWAR was $6.3 million and hitting $/fWAR was $9.4 million, both of which sit above the average MLB $/fWAR over the same 10-year span. The Jays were also able to ride some of their efficient spending into some playoff berths. In fact, a Frequent Flier on Good Value Airways, Russell Martin, makes an appearance on the Blue Jays’ top hits in free agency:

The Fans of Canada’s Bagged Milk

Player	Position	Dollars Spent	Contract Length	Year Signed	Total fWAR	fWAR Year 1	fWAR Year 2	fWAR Year 3	fWAR Year 4	fWAR Year 5
J.A. Happ	SP	$ 31,387,128	3	2015-16	7.7	2.8	2.9	2
Marcus Semien	SS	$ 18,000,000	1	2020-21	6.6	6.6
Robbie Ray	SP	$ 8,000,000	1	2020-21	3.9	3.9
Russell Martin	C	$ 78,400,000	5	2014-15	12.5	4.5	3.6	2	1.2	1.2

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I’ve tried to stay away from 1-year deals as being particularly “big hits” in free agency because I think it’s much more impressive to get good, consistent value out of a multi-year contract, but the Semien and Ray contracts are just unbelievably good and thus merited inclusion. Martin’s deal isn’t absurdly good value, relative to some of the other contracts I’ve listed, but it’s quite hard to extrapolate such good value out of a 5-year contract. Martin was 32 when he signed that 5-year deal with Toronto, which is significant because 32 is right on the very edge of the recognized “prime” of baseball players. And yet, heading into year 5 of the contract, Martin was providing decent value above a replacement-level catcher.

Happy Birthday Russell Martin ⚾️

On Sept. 23, 2015, the Blue Jays held a slim 2.5 game lead over the Yankees in the AL East

In the rubber match of their final series against New York, Martin crushed a 3-run bomb in the 7th, leading to a 4-0 victory

They clinched a week later pic.twitter.com/ZtXQElhEOp

— Hunter Crowther (@HunterCrowther) February 15, 2022

The Blue Jays' all-time top 10 position players by WAR per 150 games (minimum 150 games played) are:

Josh Donaldson 7.2
Fred McGriff 5.1
Devon White 4.8
José Bautista 4.4
Roberto Alomar 4.4
Scott Rolen 4.3
Russell Martin 3.8
Marco Scutaro 3.8
John Olerud 3.8
Carlos Delgado 3.7

— Andrew Stoeten (@AndrewStoeten) March 22, 2020

The Jays have also had their fair share of “misses,” or they wouldn’t be sitting as the 10th-ranked team in spending efficiency.

Bagged Milk Haters