From the bright lights between the lines to the solitude of the bench or the rehab facility, things can change quickly. Between 2005 and 2009, Philadelphia Phillies’ second baseman Chase Utley claimed a rightful spot among baseball’s top players.  Hitting third in the lineup – that sweet spot typically reserved for a team’s top hitter – Utley averaged 29 homers and 101 RBI for the perennially contending (and twice National League champion) Phils. His OPS never fell below .905 over that stretch; his batting average never below .282.
Along the way came a seven-year, $85 million contract extension, signed before the 2007 season. The Hall of Fame was surely beckoning.
But then, the unfortunate side of sports: injuries. Torn thumb ligaments. The right knee, then the left knee. And this season, the body part that no one ever heard of a decade ago that every player in the league now seems to strain at least once a year: the oblique. Utley’s recent month on the disabled list is only the latest in a series of bumps, bruises and tears that have kept him out of more than 200 games since the beginning of the 2010 season, all while collecting some $60 million. So as much as we love him, there’s little choice but to declare Utley as sports’ best-paid bench warmer.
He beats out the Miami Heat’s Rashard Lewis, who got $13.7 million (most of it from a buyout of his previous deal before Miami nabbed him for the veteran minimum) to start nine games in 2012-13, and the Charlotte Bobcats’ Ben Gordon, a former big scorer in Chicago who now makes $12.4 million to come off the bench for 20 minutes a game.
We all know that in the world of big-time sports, a big contract signed by a player at his peak doesn’t always pay off for his team down the road. Sometimes it’s age, sometimes it’s injury, sometimes it’s just a basic failure to consistently replicate your best seasons.  The bulk of the 2013 list hails from the NBA, where scorers have long been overvalued under a salary cap system that spreads a big chunk of payroll to a few players.  Don’t be surprised if that changes soon, as baseball sabremetric principals continue to creep into the hoops world.
Note that when it comes to injuries, we’re sympathetic. A consistent performer who’s been recently sidelined by a sudden torn up knee or broken ankle gets a pass. But perpetual injuries are a different story – being injury prone affects your value. At some point you have to show that you can stay on the field. Utley, like fellow second baseman Brian Roberts in Baltimore ( eighth on our list with a $10 million salary), just hasn’t done that in recent years. They’d probably prefer to be playing than getting paid to rehab. Maybe next year.

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