Baltimore Orioles: Ten Most Haunting Contracts In Franchise History

In the spirit of Halloween, we’re taking a look at ten contracts that came back to haunt the Baltimore Orioles over the years.

Happy Halloween week, Baltimore Orioles fans! If you partake in Halloween festivities, may your sweet tooth remain satisfied and need for a good scare be fulfilled with trips to haunted houses or a good, classic horror movie.

In the spirit of the holiday, we decided to take a look back at ten of the most frightening contracts handed out by the Orioles. There’s no ranking system with these contracts, but it’s an easy guess as to which contract has haunted Baltimore the most and will for many, many, many more years.

Imagine giving a 29-year-old reliever coming off a -0.2 bWAR season a contract nearing $20 million or handing out $50 million to Ubaldo Jimenez? Unfortunately, these were just two decisions made by Orioles leadership over the years that turned out to be duds.

Chris Davis- 7 year/$161 million

Orioles fans everywhere can recite the specific details of the Chris Davis contract by heart now. Not only is it the worst contract handed out in franchise history, but it’s also one of the worst in the history of Major League Baseball.

What makes this deal even worse is the fact that the Orioles will continue to pay Davis until 2037. With prospects on the rise and Chris Davis not likely to improve any time soon, will he continue to hang around on the roster or will Mike Elias finally make a move? As of now, we know he will be back for spring training 2020, after that, we’ll have to wait and see.

Over the last two years, Davis has just 18 home runs, has struck out 324 times, and has hit .168 and .179 in 2018 and 2019, respectively. It’s been a long, sad downfall from 53 home runs in a season and striking fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers.