The Best Paid Bench Warmers

Many athletes who make the list tend to be aging former starters riding out big contracts in their declining years, after they’ve been busted down to part-time duty. Baseball outfielders Jay Payton and Jacque Jones fit this bill.

Baseball has already learned about the difficulties of getting rid of dead money. During the 1980s, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth pointed out to the owners how much they were flushing down the drain on players that didn’t play. The problem is that when the owners decide collectively to clamp down, they’re guilty of collusion (a legacy of the Ueberroth era, resulting in legal rulings that forced owners to fork over millions to the players union). Read more at Forbes.com