The Washington Nationals may have been reluctant to spend large sums of money in the past, but the Jayson Werth signing this winter is supposed to have dispelled that notion. But maybe we weren’t looking close enough at that signing — and spending. Perhaps the Nationals just weren’t crazy about spending a lot of money on certain positions.
Not right field, though. It’s been a money pit for this franchise, a tradition of sorts, even before the Lerner family took over the team in the middle of the 2006 season.
On the Nationals, the right fielder usually has one of the biggest wallets in the clubhouse.
The club has hardly gotten value in return.
Jose Guillen patrolled right field for the Nationals in their inaugural 2005 season at RFK Stadium. He wasn’t the highest-paid player on that roster — Livan Hernandez was making $8 million that season — but he came in fourth at $3.5 million.
Guillen hit 24 home runs, 76 RBI and had a .283 average. That was the glory year for right field value.
Guillen made $4 million in an injury-filled 2006 season, ranking him fourth again, but this time he batted just .216 with nine home runs and 40 RBI.
A midseason trade by general manager Jim Bowden put Austin Kearns in right field, costing Washington about $900,000 for the rest of the year. Kearns batted .250 with eight home runs and 36 RBI in 63 games.
The Nationals invested heavily in Kearns during the winter, giving him a three-year, $17 million contract extension.
Kearns proceeded to sink into oblivion with the most useless 16 home run, 74 RBI, and .266 batting average season ever witnessed in baseball. For this he made $3.5 million — again, fourth in earnings for that team.
Kearns made more money in 2008 — $5 million — and had less production. Playing in 86 games, he batted just .217, with seven home runs and 32 RBI.
In 2009, Kearns reached the pinnacle — tied for the highest-paid National at $8 million, he hit .195 with three home runs and 17 RBI in 80 games.
The 2010 season was a value year, since Mike Morse played right field most of the time. But $400,000 a year won’t do for a Nationals right fielder.
So the club signed Werth this past winter to a seven-year, $126 million contract. As the first year comes to a close, Werth has had a Kearns-like impact and will get paid $10 million for it.
Add it all up — ignoring the right field appearances by others on occasion — the Nationals have invested $35 million in right field.
Assuming Werth remains in right field for the length of his contract, that’s another $116 million added to the tab.
Right field for the Nationals has become a black hole — a region of space whose gravitational pull is so strong that it turns it into a great void — an abyss.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
