You have to hand it to Scott Boras, he pulled off one of the great coups in recent free agent history getting the Washington Nationals to cough up 7 years and $126 million dollars for Jayson Werth, who will be 32 to start next season. Just a month ago we were talking about how the Phillies probably only wanted to go five years and debating whether the Red Sox might up it to five to close the deal.. Then Boras suckers the Nats into going seven and making Werth one of the the highest paid players in baseball.
Obviously Washington was going to have to pay a premium to get any notable free agents given where the team has been since it was moved to Washington, but this one is a shocker. John Heyman is reporting that most teams were offering “Jayson Bay money” in the area of 4 years/ $66 million. Obviously Washington blew that out of the water by nearly doubling his money. SBNation DC says the Nationals, who once looked liked they were taking the Capitals route of building a young core through the draft, have suddenly veered in the direction of the Redskins splashing out stunning amounts of money on aging free agents. You obviously know how that's worked out...
The Phillies won’t be happy about Werth heading to the Nats and not because they’ll have to see him in the division. As The Good Phight points out, since the Nats were so bad last year their first round pick is protected. So the Phillies will only receive the Nationals second round pick. Had he went to the Red Sox, the Phils would have taken their first round pick.
The rest of baseball certainly isn’t happy because the Nationals just destroyed the market by wildly overpaying for Werth. If Jayson is worth 7 years, $126 million then what is the younger and frankly better Carl Crawford worth? Surely he can’t accept less than what Werth signed for? What is Cliff Lee going to to demand? The Nats may get some icy receptions at the owners meeting this week. In fact, Buster Olney says that other GMs are livid about the contract.
The Werth contract has had an impact of an 8.0 earthquake. Rival gms, execs are going nuts about the terms.
All that aside, you have to congratulate Werth. The guy played his whole life for a chance at contract like this. He’s a good guy, he battled through injury problems for a good portion of his younger years, but he won himself a ring in Philly and now he’s one of the highest paid players in baseball. Congrats!