Padres close door on ill-advised Shields signing; White Sox get good value

8:33 AM ET

The accounting for a signing that was suspect from the outset is just about complete, and in the end, the San Diego Padres’ signing of James Shields turned out to be a terrible and expensive miss for a team with a mid-level payroll.

Because the Royals had given Shields a qualifying offer as he became a free agent, San Diego gave up the No. 12 pick in the 2015 draft to land the right-hander to a four-year deal that was heavily backloaded. Shields had a poor season in 2015, and about 17 months after signing pitcher, the Padres ate more than half of the remaining dollars owed to the right-hander to trade him to the White Sox on Saturday.

The complete numbers, assuming that Shields does not opt out of the last two years of his contract (after some tough times on the mound, he’d be …

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