Nationals Do It Again
“The Nationals are ready to win,” writes Nationals beat reporter Bill Ladsen on MLB.com in announcing Washington’s 7-year, $126 million signing of free agent right fielder Jayson Werth on Sunday.
Whoops.
Werth is obviously a very good player, having posted an OPS+ of 131 over his four years with the Phillies, however, had he achieved this feat while playing on a team that didn’t also feature Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels and make the playoffs four years in a row, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t even be discussing the prospect of Jayson Werth: $100 Million Man.
For some prospective, let’s take a look at two other guys who didn’t see regular playing time before their 27th birthdays (Werth didn’t exceed 500 plate appearances in a season until 2009, his age-30 season):
Shockingly, we don’t hear too much about the splash to be made when Scott and Willingham (combined postseason at-bats: 3) hit the open market next season. Guys like these three are good players that, unfortunately for the Nationals, are not good enough to be the best player on a championship-caliber team, which is what they’re paying Werth as if he were.
Before deciding to pay Jayson Werth $54,000,000 for his age-36, 37 & 38 seasons, Nats GM Mike Rizzo might have benefited from giving a call to the Blue Jays and ask them how Vernon Wells is doing.
December 7, 2010 at 9:45 pm
You overlook the fact that: 1) the Nats likely had to overpay (and overextend, adding years 6 and 7 to his contract) to be able to get Werth to sign; 2) the Nats got him and other teams didn’t; 3) the Nats’ owners finally opened up their pockets, big time, to improve the team; 4) Werth is a good hitter, in good shape, with a good arm, better than average defensive skills. And, if they sign Pena (or Larouche) they’ll be in pretty good shape.