List of worst contracts in MLB makes Astros look like complete fools

The Houston Astros are in a difficult position this offseason with serious needs and not much money to spend. This is nothing new. The club has many big-money contracts that are holding them back, and their financial realities are what motivated the Kyle Tucker trade last winter.

Some of this is just the cost of doing business. Lance McCullers Jr. looked like a rising star when the Astros bestowed him with a five-year, $85 million extension, only to be derailed by devastating injuries. Jose Altuve's contract is what you have to do for a player who has been the face of your franchise for so long.

But other albatrosses are unforced errors, and those are the ones that are truly devastating.

The Athletic's ranking of the ugliest contracts in baseball shows how the Astros have shot themselves in the foot

The Athletic (subscription required) ranked the worst contracts in baseball, and the appearance of two Astros' deals in the honorable mentions makes Dana Brown and the team look like fools.

As stated, the presence of several long-term, underwater deals on the books forced the club to trade a homegrown star in Kyle Tucker last offseason, but the moves made in that deal's aftermath were the ones that were highlighted in the list.

The deals in question are Christian Walker's three-year, $60 million contract, which the team is desperately trying to unload, and the remaining three years and $62 million they're on the hook for with Carlos Correa before a series of complex vesting options come into play.

Walker might be excusable, though a team with the concerns over payroll and long-term flexibility could have made other choices to solve first base aside from signing Walker.

The Correa deal is even worse. While the nostalgia is nice and Correa was a good soldier down the stretch despite some lackluster power numbers, his recent injury history, up-and-down performance, and the potential for these vesting options to further complicate things for years to come create quite the sticky wicket.

In fact, had Isaac Paredes not gotten hurt less than two weeks before the trade deadline, Correa wouldn't even be here now. Panic moves rarely work out, and Brown truly panicked when he pulled the trigger on that trade and ignored other needs that existed prior to Paredes' injury.

The real dirt in the wound is that Correa and Walker's presence on the roster now creates a logjam at the corner infield spots that will either have a highly paid veteran on the bench most nights, or an ascending player in Paredes losing playing time. None of that is ideal.

Now, because of their mismanagement, the Astros will watch Framber Valdez walk away in free agency and are left without sufficient ammunition to find a suitable replacement.

These wounds run deep, but the Astros have no one to blame but themselves for their misfortunes.