Some teams, like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, have to pay what is called a “luxury tax” when their total payroll exceeds the ceiling established by Major League Baseball for that season.
The Washington Nationals paid what might be called a “pathetic tax” this winter when they agreed to a stunning seven year, $126 million deal for Jayson Werth. The organization had such a pathetic reputation that they had to overpay any free agent of note to agree to wear a Nationals uniform.
The perception is the Nationals have taken some steps this season to move from pathetic to promising. They have several young position players on the field who appear to be foundation pieces, plus the two most promising prospects who aren’t even here — top picks Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.
But that is the future.
The pathetic tax the Nationals paid for Werth this winter was the penalty for the sins of the past.
Instead of helping the movement toward promising, the Werth contract may hold back that progress and keep the franchise with one foot in a bright future and the other foot buried in the pathetic past.
Werth — a good player in Philadelphia when he was surrounded with championship-caliber talent — was signed in a weak free agent market at a time when the Nationals felt the need to make such a move.
By the time the seventh year of that contract comes along, Werth will be 39 years old and making $21 million.
You don’t expect those diminishing returns — a .219 average entering Saturday night — in the front of the contract, the years in which you have to get the results on the field to validate the pathetic tax.
But with just two months left in the season, the return in this first year of the contract is pretty much lost, even if Werth manages to somehow right himself.
The other high-priced free agent signed this past offseason, Carl Crawford, has hardly lived up to his $142 million contract. But that was paid by the Red Sox, and no one has to be begged to play for Boston. A contract is a contract there, the cost of doing business. It is not a message to players that it is safe to invest their careers with the team.
The Nationals may someday be good enough to conduct business like that. The question is will Werth help get them there or hold them back?
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].
