Kansas City Royals: Ten Worst Contracts in Team History

Worst Contract Ever – Jose Guillen (Royals outfielder from 2008-2010)

The worst Kansas City Royals contract had to be the one given out to Jose Guillen.

Before the 2008 season began, the Royals signed Guillen to a three-year deal worth $36 million. Dayton Moore was hoping to get the same guy who had a slash line of .290/.353/.460 the year prior with Seattle, but instead got a complete bust and waste of money.

Jose Guillen was bad on both sides of the ball, only slashing .256/.308/.420 in less than three seasons with the Royals. Guillen was dreadful on defense too, which didn’t help ease the pain with the amount of money the Royals were paying him to suck.

"To say his defense was bad would be an understatement; he “earned” -45.0 Runs in his time with the Royals. -J.K. Ward of Royals Review when discussing the team’s worst players"

Guillen probably could have made it peacefully through his playing woes if he’d been a nice guy, but he was far from it. He made headlines multiple times with the Royals, once for getting into it with a fan and another for calling the team “one of the worst in baseball” (see link below).

It wasn’t like these were new occurrences for the outfielder though, as he had drama during his career. He spent time with six different teams in his first five seasons.

In 2010, the Royals traded Guillen to the Giants, where he wasn’t allowed to play in the postseason due to being linked with taking PEDs, according to Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times. The Giants went on to win the World Series that year, and Guillen didn’t get a ring.

Jose Guillen clearly had enough problems of his own, but the three-year deal that the KC Royals gave him was more of a problem for the boys in blue than it was for the trouble making outfielder.