Giants' $43 million free agent signing ranked best in MLB history

Major League Baseball changed forever in 1976 with the advent of free agency.

It has led to some of the biggest contracts in sports being signed by MLB players who have hit the open market. No signing since then, though, has ever risen to the level of one made by the San Francisco Giants.

In a new article on Friday, ESPN's Bradford Doolittle ranked the best and worst free agent signings in league history.

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In the No. 1 spot for best signing ever, he has the Giants, for when they signed Barry Bonds in 1993 for his departure from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The deal at the time was for six years and $43 million.

Those dollars seem quite mundane by today's standards, but at the time, it was a massive deal for the guy who would grow into an indomitable force in the Bay Area.

"The Bonds deal, which by the definitions used in this study has a 14-year duration due to extensions, laps the field in terms of its on-field impact," Doolittle writes. "If the only bWAR Bonds accrued during his career came from these seasons, his total of 109.1 would still rank 23rd on the all-time list. For me, the most remarkable thing about it is that the Giants were coming off an uninspiring 72-90 season when they made this splash."

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Clearly, Bonds' career was marred by controversy en route to becoming baseball's home run king.

But as far as on-field production goes, the Giants couldn't have asked for more than what Bonds gave them after signing this contract.

It'll be tough for a free agent deal ever to reach this standard ever again. The Giants' front office who negotiated that contract with Bonds almost certainly have no regrets.

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