Dodgers DFA Carl Crawford, with another year and roughly $30M left on his deal.
I'm not gonna say this guy was the cause of the end of the Theo/Tito golden age, but he was easily the biggest mistake Theo ever made (quibbles over who was really the one pushing for CC and that ridiculous contract aside), and it was a miracle that they were able to get out from under the bulk of that deal so quickly after it went predictably south.
This is a significant datum in looking at the actual results from the Punto Trade. Which looks sweeter and sweeter.
I'm sure someone's got a spreadsheet out there but on my digital napkin:
Gonzo - 2322 PA, 126 OPS+, 12 Bref WAR, $85m paid, $44m for the next 2 seasons.
Beckett - 35 starts, 106 ERA+, 2 WAR, $47m paid.
Crawford - 1119 PA, 103 OPS+, 2.8 WAR, $62m paid, $42m owed for the next 2 seasons.
Punto - 378 PA, 88 OPS+, 2.5 WAR, $3m.
$10m cash.
That's roughly $229m to date for 19 WAR. Ironically, without Punto, it looks far worse.
None of the players the Dodgers gave up provided any significant WAR during their control years (Loney did post FA). Most were slightly negative. We did get a season out of Miley (2.5 WAR) from Webster/De La Rosa, and Sands/DeJesus were pieces in the Brock Holt/Hanrahan deal. Holt's at 4 WAR and is a FA in 2020. Call it something like +4 WAR worth of control coming out of the deal to date? I mean this stuff eventually attenuates as years of control pass, but the point is that LA gave away prospect value in addition to taking on the contracts. Maybe the Sox were snakebit on some of those trades, but the value is still there.
Although it's not precise, one could view that as something like
net 15 WAR for the Dodgers to date.
At $6-7m per win, you'd be expecting something like 33-38 WAR?
If Gonzo does not decline end ends up putting up 12 more WAR, it ends up being $273 for 31 WAR. (Or net 22 WAR if Holt continues as is). Expected 40-45 WAR.
So unless we're talking intangibles (3 post seasons for LA/marketing) if the 2 WAR performances from everyone else cancel out, one could simply this in a way, and say from the Dodger's perspective this ended up being; Dodgers pay $273m for 6 years for Gonzo's performance.
I love Gonzo, but that's rough.