1. Derek Bell 2001
Operation Shutdown. Those two words will forever be infamous for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Derek Bell came to the Pirates with a fairly established Big League career. He had over 1000 hits, 130 home runs and was a World Series champion, but when he got the Pirates, he was 32 years old and had a fairly high opinion of himself.
Before the 2001 season, the Pirates signed Bell to a two-year, $10 million contract. His first season in Pittsburgh didn’t go according to plan. He appeared in only 46 games, hit .173/.287/.288/.576, had an OPS+ of 48 and was worth -1.2 WAR. He was awful when he wasn’t injured.
Entering Spring Training 2002, Bell assumed he had the starting right field job locked up. When he was told he’d have to compete for the job, Bell said this: “If it ain’t settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain’t going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is (open competition), then I’m going into Operation Shutdown.”
True to his word, Bell went into Operation Shutdown. He never appeared in a game again for the Pirates or any other Major League team, but his contract remained on the books for the 2002 season.
Bell is easily the worst free agent deal in Pirates’ history, not just because of his performance on the field but by the way he successfully stole money from the team because he refused to compete for a job in Spring Training. I don’t think there will be much disagreement with this list as Derek Bell’s tenure as a Pirate is a huge black eye for the franchise and remains one of the most infamous moments in Pirates’ history.
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