1. New York Yankees- Alex Rodriguez $31M
2. New York Mets- Johan Santana $20.145M
3. Detroit Tigers- Miguel Cabrera $20M
4. Chicago Cubs- Alfonso Soriano $19M
5. Houston Astros- Carlos Lee $19M
6. Philadelphia Phillies- Ryan Howard $19M
7. Boston Red Sox- John Lackey $18.7M
8. LA Dodgers- Manny Ramirez $18.695M
9. LA Angels- Torii Hunter $18.5M
10. San Fransisco Giants- Barry Zito $18.5M
11. Seattle Mariners- Ichiro Suzuki $18M
12. Colorado Rockies- Todd Helton $17.775M
13. St. Louis Cardinals- Chris Carpenter $15.841M
14. Toronto Blue Jays- Vernon Wells $15.688M
15. Atlanta Braves- Derek Lowe $15M
16. Chicago White Sox- Jake Peavy $15M
17. Minnesota Twins- Justin Morneau $15M
18. Texas Rangers- Michael Young $13.175M
19. Milwaukee Brewers- Jeff Suppan $12.75M
20. Cincinatti Reds- Aaron Harang $12.5M
21. Oakland Athletics- Eric Chavez $12.5M
22. Kansas City Royals- Gil Meche $12.4M
23. Baltimore Orioles- Kevin Millwood $12M
24. Washington Nationals- Adam Dunn $12M
25. Cleveland Indians- Travis Hafner $11.5M
26. Tampa Bay Rays- Carlos Pena $10.125M
27. Arizona Diamondbacks- Dan Haren $8.25M
28. Florida Marlins- Dan Uggla $7.8M
29. San Diego Padres- Chris Young $6.375M
30. Pittsburgh Pirates- Paul Maholm $5M
Not suprisingly, Alex Rodriguez's contract with the Yankees was the greatest in 2010. What is surprising, however, is the number of teams that doled out their biggest annueal salaries to mediocre-to-awful players. It would be one thing if these players were underperforming franchise players or held some kind of intangible value to the team, but most of these guys are just absolute duds. There is Kevin Millwood on the Orioles, who pitched to a 5.10 ERA with 16 losses; or John Lackey, who is in no way the face or ace of the Red Sox. Many of these players were also intended to be the face of the franchise, signed long, expensive deals, and got injured or turned out to be flop (e.g. Eric Chavez, Gil Meche, or Manny Ramirez). Another interesting thing about this list is that a few were traded very recently to dump their monstrous salaries on other teams that can afford them; Dan Haren and Vernon Wells were traded to the Angels, Dan Uggla was traded to the Braves, and Jake Peavy was originally traded to the White Sox from the Padres. These contracts depict the difficulty of signing players, especially to long deals. No team knows how a player will perform in the later years of his contract, or whether he will get injured. Teams can only try to get lucky with their signings and hope for no Pavano's or Oliver Perez's.
