Boston Red Sox fans beware: this eight-year, $110 million contract with Dustin Pedroia could turn out to be a huge pitfall.

The soon-to-be 30-year-old penned the contract on Wednesday and now plans to stay in Boston until 2021.

Sox fans rejoiced when they heard that their favorite second baseman wouldn’t be leaving through free agency this offseason, but it may only take a few years for them to look back on his contract and be incredibly disappointed.

Pedroia now joins the ranks of the baseball players in their late 20’s and early 30’s who singed ridiculously long deals for over $100 million. Sure, that’s after incentives and bonuses are built in, but he’ll still be making at least over $11 million per year, if not more.

But really, who is surprised? Of the 17 largest contracts in all of professional sports, 15 of them are baseball players. Do they all fizzle out? No.

But all it takes for the Red Sox to realize finalizing that deal may not be the best move for their organization is to look at other teams who have done the same exact thing with their older stars in the past four or five seasons.

So, let’s do just that to really figure out why these long-term baseball deals just don’t work out.

Alex Rodriguez

Back in 2007, Alex Rodriguez inked a contract with the New York Yankees totaling $252 million over the course of 10 years. This season alone, A-Rod is making $28 million for just sitting on the bench.

Since the Yankees finalized that contract, Rodriguez has been booed for his poor performance in the playoffs, has constantly missed playing time with injures and has even thrown in steroid allegations for good measure. And what age was Rodriguez in 2007? 31. Let’s keep that in mind.

Now, besides the aforementioned issues, Rodriguez’s numbers have bottomed out since that contract. His averaged dipped from .314 in 2007 to .272 in 2012, his home runs went from 52 to 18 and his on-base percentage went from .422 to .353. Now, this isn’t to say that Pedroia is going to encounter steroid allegations or anything like that, but the age has to be noticed here. And, the Yankees are locked into this contract and the rest of A-Rod’s money unless he retires, is ruled physically unfit to play anymore or is suspended like the MLB would like.

Albert Pujols

Sure there are a number of failed contracts on the Los Angeles Angels right now Josh Hamilton but Pujols is the one that stands out the most. Pujols signed an equally long contract to Rodriguez’s at 10 years, but signed for $12 million less. Still, that hasn’t made his recent performance since coming to L.A. from the St. Louis Cardinals that less disappointing.

At the time of the signing, Pujols was 32 years old. That season, he hit .285, which isn’t far off from his .299 average in 2011 with St. Louis. But between 2011 and 2012, his home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walks all decreased. His numbers don’t seem to be improving at all this season, since Pujols is hitting .254 with 54 strikeouts and a .326 OBP through 97 games.

Pujols has always had a clean name, but what happens to every human being? Aging. I think we’re starting to see a pattern.

Mark Teixeira

I’m sure Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are sleeping well at night knowing the third-largest contract in the history of the MLB has only played in 15 games this season, hitting .151 and eventually ending his season with wrist surgery. In a perfect world, the Yankees would be feeling fine that Teixeira can return from his injury next season and go back to the way he was when he first signed his eight-year, $180 million deal.

However, since he signed in 2008, the first baseman has been on a decline. Back in 2008, when he spent time with the Los Angeles Angels and the Atlanta Braves, Texeira was hitting .308 with 33 home runs, 121 runs batted in and 41 doubles. Since then, he’s fought off injuries but managed to play in 123 games in 2012. That year, Texeira only hit .251, drove in 84 runs and hit 27 doubles.

Now, New York is stuck with a first baseman for three more seasons who can’t hit like he used to and can’t stay healthy. Oh and what age did Texeira sign his deal at? 28.

Sure the Yankees appeared twice in that list, but Boston should have just looked at their archrivals to find out that maybe they should have considered other options with Pedroia. He’s been a great player in the first eight years of his career, but history shows that singing players who are near 30 will eventually come back to hurt the team in the back end of the contracts, or even sooner than that in the case of Pujols.

If Pedroia chose to enter free agency and refused to take anything less than an eight or nine year deal, there are still plenty of options in free agency who could be signed for much less. Ben Zobrist could potential be available if the Rays don’t pick up his $7 million option, but he is only making $5.5 million per year, yet is hitting .269 with 48 RBI and 50 runs scored.

Pedroia’s a better player than Zobrist, but he also won’t lock out the Sox for six or seven years with a bloated contract only to play sub-par baseball after he turns 32. It’s time that baseball teams from around the nation finally learn to stop handing out these outrageously large contracts and just look at the Yankees and Angels to see paying players doesn’t translate to wins.