This Date In Baseball History- December 12, 1998- Pitcher Kevin Brown signed a 7 year- $105 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers-making him baseball’s first $100 million dollar man. It had been less than 20 years since Nolan Ryan signed a deal making him the first $1 million dollar a year player. Brown was coming off three outstanding seasons- in 1998 he went 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA with the San Diego Padres. He was considered one of the best pitchers in baseball at the age of 33.
How did the deal work out? The first two seasons in Los Angeles went well- 18-9 with a 3.00 ERA in 1999 and while he only went 10-6 in 2000 he did lead the league in ERA but it was an injury plagued season. Over the seven years of his contract he averaged only 9 wins. As a Dodger he was 58-32 with a 3.83 ERA in 5 seasons. He finished up his career with the Yankees. The verdict he wasn’t worth the money he got.
slicethelife 
Kevin Brown was such a nice guy! NOT. I was shocked…of course this was when Malone was the GM and Fox owned them. I can’t see O’Malley ever doing this. They didn’t know how to run a baseball team.
Not a wise spending of the money for sure.
I remember that one making shock waves. At the time I figured it wasn’t wise to give out a 7 year contract to a pitcher.