One of the more overshadowed pickups during the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ massive offseason spending spree was the addition of outfielder Michael Conforto.
The 32-year-old has had a brutal start to the 2025 campaign, however, entering Sunday with just two home runs and six RBI, while striking out 50 times (one-third of his 150 at-bats). Conforto has contributed -0.8 Wins Above Replacement and his .167/.298/.267 slash line is by far the worst of his career.
With all teams having played roughly one-third of their regular season schedule thus far, Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller put together his list of “MLB’s Worst 2025 Contract Busts After 2 Months” in an article posted on Sunday. Ranked as the ninth-worst contract bust for this year so far is Conforto’s one-year, $17 million deal that he inked over the winter.
“The saving grace here is that it’s only one year, and what’s another $17M* to the International Banking Federation that is the Los Angeles Dodgers?” Miller wrote. “But Michael Conforto has very much become the ‘one of these things is not like the other’ player in this otherwise ridiculously loaded Dodgers lineup. For a little while there — with both Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández on the IL while Hyeseong Kim was just beginning to cut his teeth at the MLB level — they had little choice but to keep Conforto as their regular left fielder. Now, however, they have 10 solid assets at their disposal — 11 if you’re already counting recently promoted top prospect Dalton Rushing, who can play left field, for the record—and every plate appearance given to Conforto and his .448 OPS (with just one RBI!) dating back to April 6 feels like a missed opportunity to do so much more.”
The MLB writer even suggested that if the 2017 NL All-Star doesn’t start turning things around soon, he could be in danger of being let go.
“At this point, they probably wouldn’t even be able to trade him away. If he doesn’t start showing legitimate signs of life, might just have to bite the bullet and drop him like the Astros did with José Abreu last June,” Miller wrote.
2-Time Cy Young Award Winner Joins Teammate on ‘Contract Busts’ List
Conforto can take solace in the fact that he’s not the only member of the Dodgers who makes the undesirable top 10 list.
According to Miller, two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell has been an even bigger contract bust for Los Angeles this spring. Snell is ranked sixth on the countdown.
The 32-year-old southpaw signed a five-year, $182 million contract with Los Angeles in late November but has only made two starts this season. Snell was placed on the 15-day IL due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder in early April and has yet to return to game action.
“Blake Snell was No. 1 on this list one year ago. To that point, he had an 11.40 ERA through four appearances, and it looked like the Giants were going to be stuck with him exercising the player option in his two-year, $62M deal. From July 1 onward, though, Snell was maybe the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball, logging 80.1 IP with a 1.23 ERA, 0.78 WHIP and 12.8 K/9,” Miller wrote. “He pretty much always has been a better pitcher in the second half (2.32 ERA, 1.09 WHIP) than he has been in the first half (3.95 ERA, 1.35 WHIP). And though his WAR (thanks to the eight walks) suggests he stunk up the joint in his two appearances this season before getting hurt, he did limit the damage to just two earned runs, ever the king of wriggling out of self-inflicted jams. Combine all those factors and I’m reluctant to put Snell any higher than this. But there’s no question that the Dodgers thus far have not gotten anything close to their money’s worth on what is the third-highest salaried pitcher in the big leagues.”
The Bleacher Report scribe added that, while the former first-round pick’s start with his new squad has frustrated fans, better days are likely ahead.
“The good news is his shoulder has gotten the green light from the team doctors and he has been throwing for a little over a week now. He won’t be eligible to come off the 60-day IL until early June, but he might be back shortly thereafter,” Miller wrote. “Just in time for July and his annual second-half surge to arrive.”
Dodgers’ Division Rival’s Infielder Named Worst of ‘Contract Busts’
Despite the negative early returns with Conforto and Snell, the Dodgers are still atop the NL West standings at 32-20. Right behind them at 30-22 though, is the rival San Francisco Giants.
Soon after watching Snell depart for southern California, the Giants added shortstop Willy Adames to give them some much-needed power in their lineup.
Coming off a monster 2024 season where he set career highs in runs (93), hits (153), doubles (33), home runs (32), RBI (112), stolen bases (21) and walks (74), and finished 10th in the NL MVP voting, expectations were high for Adames in the Bay Area. Instead, with his seven-year, $182 million deal, the Giants’ decision to bring in the 29-year-old shortstop is ranked as the worst bust by Miller.
Adames entered Sunday with five home runs, 24 RBI and a career-worst .216/.298/.352 slash line across 199 at-bats covering 51 games.
“With the exception of Blake Snell, though, his AAV is at least $6M greater and his overall contract is at least $89.5M more than every other player on the list, making his early mediocrity that much more unforgivable. While we won’t go so far as to say it’s looking like this seven-year, $182M deal is going to age as poorly as Kris Bryant’s has at Colorado, things certainly aren’t going according to plan,” Miller wrote. “Adames has an OPS+ of 87, which is the worst mark of his career and slightly below those of both Max Muncy and Alec Bohm, who have been the weak links in their respective, World Series hopeful lineups. And while the concern when he signed with the Giants was that Oracle Park could sap his production, he’s actually hitting worse on the road (.585 OPS) than at home (.712 OPS). Moreover, his glovework at shortstop has been dreadful.”
Per Miller, Adames had a fielding run value of +20 from 2022-24 and an outs above average mark of +27. Those figures have dropped to -2 and -3, respectively, in 2025.
“By some miracle, the Giants are tied for the sixth-best record in baseball in spite of Adames’ shortcomings. And at least he’s only making $13.1M this year and next before his salary balloons to $31.1M over the latter five years of the deal. Nevertheless, an ominous start to the third-longest contract signed in free agency,” he wrote.
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