2. David Wells, Red Sox (2005-2006), two years, $8 million dollars

The Red Sox took a chance on the 41-year-old Wells before the 2005 season, giving him a two-year deal. Wells made 30 starts and pitched 184 innings in 2005, going 15-7 and posting a 4.45 ERA (with a 3.83 FIP) for an iffy fielding Red Sox team. That performance right there was worth more than the $8 million Boston paid Wells, with anything else in 2006 being gravy — which was all they got. Wells was injured for most of 2006, but made eight gravy starts for Boston before being traded to the Padres at the August deadline.

Seriously, this is the second-best contract, and it was given to a fat, 42-year-old pitcher making $4 million dollars a year. We could stop here, because that’s probably all anyone needs to know about signing free agent pitchers to multi-year deals.

– Patrick Flood, PatrickFloodBlog.com.

Patrick Flood looks at the 10 best and 10 worst multi-year deals for free-agent pitchers. It’s about what you expect if you’re in the camp that says free-agent pitchers are almost always a bad investment, but it’s still pretty eye-opening. Also, if you’re in that camp, I’ll see you at the swimming hole.