When the Washington Nationals offered Jayson Werth a Godfather-like contract — an offer he couldn’t refuse — what do you think his reaction might have been?
“Tell me again, you’re going to pay me $126 million? But the catch is I have to play baseball for the Washington Nationals, right?”
That’s basically what this deal came down to, really, for Werth. He can make $18 million a year for seven years. But he has to play for the Nationals to do so.
Talk about weighing pleasure vs. pain.
What do you think the reaction of his agent Scott Boras was when the Nationals offered Werth the contract?
Do you think he looked in the mirror and said, “Damn, I’m good”?
What about the reaction of Nationals owner Ted Lerner when Werth accepted the deal?
“Raise somebody’s rent.”
If the Nationals wanted to attract one of the biggest targets on the free agent market, the only way to do that was to offer a ridiculously inflated and overvalued contract — an offer beyond the scope of reason and expectations. An offer that is tied for the 12th-highest contract in baseball history.
An offer Jayson Werth couldn’t refuse.
The other families are not happy. You could hear the howls from Orlando, the site of baseball’s winter meetings, when baseball general managers learned that Werth — the All-Star Phillies outfielder, a very good player but not considered among the elite in the game — would set the bar for the free agent market at $126 million.
“It makes some of our contracts look pretty good,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told New York reporters, according to ESPNNewYork.com. “That’s a long time and a lot of money. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington.”
What was the reaction among many Nationals fans? Shock. Skepticism. Criticism. Then perhaps realizing that if this is indeed a change in direction of the Lerner ownership — and there are more major-league financial commitments to players on the way — what do they care how much Ted Lerner wants to spend on Werth? After all, it’s not their money.
More moves are coming, according to Nationals GM Mike Rizzo.
“It kind of exemplifies Phase Two of the Washington Nationals’ process,” Rizzo told reporters in Florida. “Phase One was scouting and player development, building the farm system. … Now it’s the time to go to the second phase and really compete for division titles and championships.”
I would lose the whole Phase One reference. Phase One included several 100-loss seasons, a season ticket base dropping by more than 50 percent and an investigation into your Dominican baseball operation.
Am I missing any other highlights from Phase One?
The reality is Phase One was cleaning up the mess the Lerners and former GM Jim Bowden created, and Rizzo appears to have done that — though the farm system is hardly stocked with talent. If it was, it would be the Nationals offering the San Diego Padres prospects for first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, not the Boston Red Sox.
The beginning of Phase Two, then, is paying the price for the bad business of Phase One, when the Nationals descended into an industry-wide joke and the last place a free agent would want to come. That price was $126 million.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected]
