Right Field: Jason Heyward, Chicago Cubs
2019 Salary: $22.5 million
Jayson Heyward brings value to the Cubs, but there’s no doubt the front office wished they could’ve taken this money and awarded it to Bryce Harper on an annual basis for the foreseeable future. He’s won two Gold Gloves during his first three years in Chicago, but the offensive side of his game hasn’t gone well.
The 29-year-old posted a career-high 5.6 fWAR with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2015. In three seasons with the Cubs, his combined fWAR is 4.0. He’s never been one to light up the quality-of-contact leaderboards on a consistent basis, but his soft-contact rate has been incredibly high since arriving at Wrigley. That number hasn’t been lower than 25.0% during his current contract.
Fastballs haven’t typically been a problem for Heyward — it’s secondary pitches. The curveball was especially tough on him in 2018. He produced a -15 wRC+ against that offering last year, along with a .286 OPS, and 25.0% infield-fly rate.
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