Dodgers' $17 Million Signing Named Among Biggest Busts in MLB

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed outfielder Michael Conforto to a one-year, $17 million deal this past offseason. Conforto's short tenure with the Dodgers has been disappointing, to say the least.

The former All-Star is hitting .162 with two home runs and six runs batted in this season. He has an OPS of .563 across 154 at-bats. Conforto has gone 1-for-17 in the Dodgers' last six games.

While it appeared Conforto was just experiencing an early season slump, the outfielder has remained cold at the plate and is quite frankly becoming a liability in the lineup.

The Dodgers have made it clear that winning is their top priority. Two of the team's longest-tenured players in Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor were cut amid a tight division race in the NL West.

If players are not producing, the Dodgers are evidently not afraid to take them off the roster. It's unclear if Conforto will be cut anytime soon, but Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller named the outfielder as one of the biggest busts of the season.

"Michael Conforto has very much become the "one of these things is not like the other" player in this otherwise ridiculously loaded Dodgers lineup," Miller writes. "For a little while there—with both Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández on the IL while Hyeseong Kim was just beginning to cut his teeth at the MLB level—they had little choice but to keep Conforto as their regular left fielder.

"Now, however, they have 10 solid assets at their disposal—11 if you're already counting recently promoted top prospect Dalton Rushing, who can play left field, for the record—and every plate appearance given to Conforto and his .448 OPS (with just one RBI!) dating back to April 6 feels like a missed opportunity to do so much more."

Miller argues the Dodgers can't even use Conforto as a trade piece with the deadline approaching given his poor performance through the first two months of the season.

"At this point, they probably wouldn't even be able to trade him away," Miller adds. "If he doesn't start showing legitimate signs of life, might just have to bite the bullet and drop him like the Astros did with José Abreu last June."