Major League Baseball is the pinnacle when it comes to statistics. Everything is tracked: every pitch of every game, ever. In my wide-open days, I usually end up in a statistical rabbit-hole, frequently MLB stats. I love the terrible stats; when I say terrible, I mean “tell me how bad so-and-so was,” those kinds of terrible stats. Well, in my daily rabbit-hole, I started looking for the worst individual statistical seasons in MLB history, which was entertaining, but I felt something was missing and was growing tired of looking at the rosters of my favourite team, the Seattle Mariners. I’d seen the terrible team with the terrible players and the terrible stats; I wanted to see the good teams with the terrible players and the terrible stats, if they existed – of course they did. Based around the statistic WAR (wins-above-replacement), I wanted to uncover who had the worst individual seasons, while playing for the best teams; in other words, who had the least amount of impact (or most hindrance) on their team’s success. I went through the past twenty-five World Series champions (don’t worry Mariners, you’re safe) of the last twenty-five seasons and compiled my list. Now, these players didn’t necessarily have the worst WAR out of all the players to play on the twenty-five championship rosters; they do however, all have their own unique story.

Even though I will be razzing these players to some extent, I have to state that it’s all in good fun and humour, and realize they’re miles ahead of me in baseball talent. Please enjoy the list of the worst players of the last twenty-five World Series champion teams:

*Note: if any of the statistics are foreign to you, I have provided a glossary at the bottom of the article

Astros (2017): Carlos Beltran – 40 years old

-1.1 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP/SLG wOBA wRC+ 509 14 51 .231/.283/.383 .283 76

Beltran was not only involved in the most controversial baseball story of recent memory (“Sign Stealing Gate”) but his contributions were in the red for the World Series champion Astros. He ranked 4th worst in WAR among qualified hitters, and his wOBA and wRC+ were worst among qualified DH’s. The saving grace for Beltran was that despite having an abysmal season, he won his first World Series. However, his involvement in the sign stealing fiasco cost him his job as manager of one of his former teams – the New York Mets – before he even managed a game for them; they “mutually parted ways” on January 6th, 2020 and it appears as though Beltran will finish his career as a manager with a sparkling 0-0 record.

Royals (2015): Omar Infante – 34 years old

-1.3 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP/SLG wOBA wRC+ BB% 455 2 44 .220/.234/.318 .238 43 2.0%

If you want to talk about the worst individual seasons of the past fifty years, this has to be one of them. Infante was all over the league leaderboard – albeit the wrong end. He ranked 4th worst in WAR of any hitter with at least one plate appearance, and 2nd worst among hitters with at least 400 plate appearances; he was LAST in BB%, wRC+, wOBA, and OBP for hitters with at least 400 plate appearances. That is very, very, very awful. His wRC+ and OBP were not even close to the next worst hitter in the league (wRC+ was last by 8 runs, OBP was last by .019!!!). His minimally above average defending was the only thing keeping him somewhat afloat… I assume. Putting it into perspective, Bryce Harper led MLB in 2015 with a 197 wRC+; in other words, Mr. Infante’s season was not ‘bueno’.

The best I could find of Omar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSLNl2_tHNU

Cardinals (2011): Ryan Franklin – 38 years old

-1.2 WAR

W/L G IP ERA HR/9 BABIP HR/FB FIP 1-4 21 27.2 8.46 2.93 .354 23.7% 6.89

Veteran hurler Ryan Franklin ended his big-league career in excruciating fashion in 2011. The former Mariner accumulated the 3rd worst WAR among pitchers who tossed at least 20 innings, and was the 2nd worst among relievers – he can thank Scott Proctor for being brutal too that season. Franklin sported the 3rd highest HR/FB% and HR/9, as well as the 8th highest FIP (where another former Mariner, Anthony Vasquez, was shockingly terrible; check these 2011 numbers). All this for a pitcher who didn’t get a chance to finish the season on the eventual World Series champion Cardinals, being released on June 29th, 2011. Even though he technically didn’t abide by the criteria set forth for this article, his stats were too good to pass up.

His season summed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztI3Sj_MM64

Cardinals (2006): Jason Isringhausen – 34 years old

-0.9 WAR

W/L SV G IP ERA BB/9 FIP 4-8 33 59 58.1 3.55 5.86 5.70

For Jason Isringhausen, the majority of these numbers upon first glance aren’t that bad. However, as a full-time closer for a World Series champion, they are. He amassed the 5th worst WAR among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched, and was 2nd worst in that same category when looking specifically at relievers. He was 9th in the majors in BB/9, a whopping 5.86 – again, this coming from a full-time closer on a World Series champion team. Ironically, he still was tied for 14th in saves in the league with 33. Fittingly enough, he was replaced by Adam Wainwright as closer when the postseason began. I guess when you have a team with Albert Pujols in his prime it doesn’t really matter who’s closing out ballgames.

What 2006 looked like for Jason: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYoGonqxeUA

White Sox (2005): Timo Perez – 30 years old

-1.7 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP.SLG wOBA wRC+ ISO 196 2 15 .218/.266/.296 .249 44 0.78

He also appeared in the World Series for the Mets in 2000, and is known for getting thrown out at the plate in Game 1 by Derek Jeter, so enjoy:A name I recall in passing from playing MVP Baseball 2005 on PlayStation 2 is about as far as my knowledge of Timo Perez goes, and as I’ve discovered, it’s for good reason. Thanks to the defensive ineptitude of Tony Womack, Bernie Williams, and Adam LaRoche in 2005, Perez had the 4th worst WAR among players with 190 plate appearances. Timo had the 2nd worst wRC+, and tied for the 2nd worst wOBA, which leaves one to wonder, how did he even get that many plate appearances? On top of those numbers, he sported the 9th worst batting average, but also the 7th worst BABIP – which can be an argument in his defense. He was hitless in his two postseason plate appearances, but has one more World Series ring than myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Yt8r9ybS8

Marlins (2003): Andy Fox – 32 years old

-1.1 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP/SLG wOBA wRC+ ISO K% 120 0 8 .194/.269/.259 .244 45 .065 24.2

Before I had started writing this article, I had never heard the name Andy Fox; for the remainder of this article you will realize why I will now never forget that name. Believe me when I say that there were so many terrible hitters in the 2003 MLB, because Fox’s -1.1 WAR was good for 14th worst among players with 120 plate appearances (the Royals themselves had three hitters in the top 11!). As you can see, Andy’s numbers were not good, not in the slightest, and he failed to get into any game action in the post season. However, I am going to save the discussion for his teammate, Vladimir Nunez, as well will reconvene with Andy shortly.

Vladimir Nunez – 28 years old

-0.9 WAR

W/L G IP ERA BB/9 HR/FB LOB% BABIP FIP 0-3 14 10.2 16.03 5.91 35% 38.5 .359 11.66

Now, 10.2 innings pitched is way to small of a sample size to get a read of how good/bad a player is. However, Nunez’s numbers were so unsustainably poor that they have to be discussed. He earned the 2nd worst WAR for pitchers who had thrown 10 innings, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. His ERA was worst by a landslide, right ahead of his teammate Kevin Olsen! He had the worst FIP, the worst HR/9, and the 3rd worst LOB% – the leader, Brian Tollberg, had a 17.2% in 10.1 innings… I hope you realize how bad that is. Realizing that he only pitched 10.2 innings, the stats do carry substantially less weight, but who cares. He, like Fox, didn’t play in the post season.

Marlins (1997): Luis Castillo – 22 years old

-0.6 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP/SLG wOBA wRC+ ISO 291 0 8 .240/.310/.270 .272 61 .030

This one was a writer’s pick; well, I guess they all are. Anyways, the story about Luis Castillo is even more fascinating than his mediocre -0.6 WAR. It was 17th worst among players with 250 plate appearance, which is not that bad in comparison to the other people I have discussed thus far. His isolated slugging of .030 is a different story, as it’s downright laughable, though I’m sure my MLB isolated slugging would be zero. Though, most notable is that Castillo won two World Series’ – 1997 and 2003, both with the Marlins. In the 1997 season, as apparent, he was last on his team in WAR. However, in 2003, he led his team in WAR! Two rings: one as the WOAT, one as the GOAT. Not bad.

Yankees (1996): Andy Fox – 25 years old

-0.9 WAR

PA HR RBI AVG/OBP/SLG wOBA wRC+ ISO BABIP 219 3 13 .196/.276/.265 .253 44 .069 .215

At the finale we find our man Andy Fox yet again. Fox was a rookie all the way back in 1996, and had the 19th worst WAR in the majors among hitters that had 210 plate appearance – not too bad when comparing with the other players within this article. Though, he was the only hitter to sport a batting average below the Mendoza line in ‘96. In his defense, his BABIP was awful, 0.15 points lower than anybody else in the majors. He did get into eight post season games and did not appear at the plate, but did score a run. The amazing part of seeing Andy again is acknowledging that he was the worst player on TWO World Series champion teams, and at that two different franchises. I do not know how to put into words how tremendous that is, so I’ll just let you all think about it. This is why baseball is perfect, Andy Fox ladies and gentlemen.

Glossary:

Glossary source: fangraphs.com

All statistics courtesy of fangraphs.com

Carter is a hockey player, formerly in the WHL for the Vancouver Giants, currently at the University of British Columbia. You can follow him on Twitter @carter_popoff.

You can follow Hit the Cut on Twitter @hitthecutblog.