Dec
05
Jayson Werth lands in … Washington?!?
ByThe first big move of the winter meetings has just gone down, with Jayson Werth agreeing to a (get this) seven year contract worth $126M with the Washington Nationals. Yes, the Nationals. That works out to exactly $18M per season. Clearly, the market is rather inflated right now, so any idea of a five year contract for Cliff Lee probably went out the window. The bidding starts at six.
Update (5:14 p.m.): Joel Sherman tweets that the Red Sox offered Werth four years. Today has, so far, not been a great day for the Bostonians.
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now the nationals can suck with werth ha
+2 (1 for the Ice Cube reference and 1 for the use of great song in proper context)
Wow, this came out of absolutely nowhere. I had him as a Red Sox for sure.
wow. just wow.
Poor Red Sox
Suddenly the Boy Genius isn’t looking so smart. What is Theo gonna do without A-Gon and Werth? Pay out the nose for Crawford?
Pay the piper for Upton? What would Theo have to give up for Upton? I am sure Theo would need Pepto just thinking about it.
Thankfully Towers isn’t an idiot. He’s only trading him if he gets an overpaid package.
It’ll have to be like Igelsias, Kelly and Rizzo for starters.
Heh, it’ll take way, way more than AG’s package for Upton.
I don’t think it has to do with not being smart. Theo would be a moron if he offered Werth a 7-year deal.
In my opinion you are absolutely correct. What did this guy hit with RISP this past season?
He’ll get Crawford and Beltre. The sky hasn’t fallen for them yet. Crawford is better than Werth. Now they don’t have to move Youk to a different position.
What makes you think Crawford signs for less than Werth? He’s almost universally regarded as a better player.
A seven-year deal? He’s 32. This won’t end well.
Carl Crawford is now dancing somewhere in his home, knowing his leverage has now increased.
His agent just wrote Rizzo a love letter.
This has to push Crawford into the 8/160 range, which would seemingly take the Sox out of the bidding, being there a small-market club and all.
“they’re”
Who would that leave?
Angels. Detroit. Rangers? Maybe Mets if they wanna overlap with Beltran one year with the big contract outfielders.
Finding out that the Sox tried to sign him makes the story so much better.
Rangers are definitely in on Crawford if Lee leaves.
Yeah but who is going to give him that? The Angels maybe but I don’t see anyone else who would.
I’m thinking it will be the Angels. The Red Sox will be involved, and all that’s needed is two teams to get the price up there.
I can’t write the Yankees out of the Crawford bidding, especially if Lee signs somewhere else.
Who is Werth’s agent? There should be a line at his door.
Where does $18MM a year put him versus other RFs in the MLB?
#1
To me, that’s ok. He’s near the top. I don’t think many are shocked by the salary, it’s the 7 years that is jarring.
Favorites for AGon and Werth get nothing. Now Boras has great leverage for Beltre. Good day.
Incredible the lack of interest MH got last offseason.
Really a mistake for the teams looking for outfielders now.
You could say the Red Sox are…………… WERTHLESS.
/Horatio Caine’d
I guess the recession is over.
Jayson Werth stays in the NL East, which I imagine played a role in the decision. No Jason Bay effect for that guy.
I heard he wanted to stay in Philly, but couldn’t because of this:
http://www.terezowens.com/jays.....leys-wife/
(probably NSFW)
I think even Boras was shocked by 126m
Now we know that everyone in DC have no idea how to spend money.
I think he is a stud RF power guy, but 7 years for a late bloomer 32 year old Right Fielder…unreal.
BTW, i would of guessed 4/60M$ or 5/70M$ deal.
I had the same thought that this deal is going to up Lee’s price. He’s going to get like 6 / $144M.
But the Rangers couldn’t possibly touch that cost. I think the Werth signing further guarantees Lee is in pinstripes next year, but at a more inflated price.
This is the worst market day for Boston since 12/23/2008.
For most of the day, Tex was Boston-bound. At 3:21 PM ET, he was New York bound. Alas for the small market Bostonians.
The Red Sox have always been very conservative spenders. Their highest paid player is freakin’ J.D. Drew. That says a lot about their inability to get some of the best players in the league like Tex and Agonz.
Inability and unwillingness are two difference concepts.
Yup. It’ll be interesting to see Lester, Pedroia and Youk hitting FA. They’ll probably lose one.
Eh, they are all locked up to reasonable deals. Youkilis is signed through 2013, Lester 2014, and Pedroia 2015.
Aren’t you counting mutual options in your years?
The last year in all of those deals is a club option, but it’s for $13M for Youk and Lester, and $11M for Pedroia. All of those are more than reasonable, and will be picked up barring severe injury.
Almost as if it’s some kind of MASTERSTROKE!
Their highest paid player is freakin’ J.D. Drew
Not anymore (NSFW)
hahaha, nice touch with the NSFW tag. Beckett makes more than Drew, too.
Heh, NSFW indeed.
MH should fire his agent after what Jayson Werth’s agent just got for him.
Oh shit, it’s the same guy
WOW. Just read on MLBTR that the Phillies aren’t getting a compensatory first round pick bc the Nats pick in the protected portion of that round. Surprising day all around. Good Sunday action indeed!
Yeah they get a sandwich pick and the Nats’ 2nd rounder.
Heh, I love it. The “Nation” is slamming on the panic button right now.
Can’t wait for the reaction of the ‘Nation’ if Lee is signed by the Yanks.
I’m laughing, but wow, did not see that coming.
Carl Crawford owes Werth a very, very, very nice gift.
Crawford’s agent will take Werth’s agent out for a very nice business lunch that may involve hookers.
Steaks and BJs
Love every second of this. I hope the Sox overpay for Beltre and have him suck like he does in a non contract year. Can’t say enough how much this puts the Red Sox back, its still early and the Sox can still pull off the Adrian Gonzalez trade or another trade but with out Werth too their offense will be about the same or worse than last years
Happy faces today…Lee, Crawford, Beltre, AG & SD fans, Boras & the entire MLB union.
Sad faces today…Theo, Bud Selig, The Nats CFO, The group formerly known as Boston’s junior GM club (SD).
They offered Werth a four-year deal? I think the Red Sox might want to wake up to the concept of market pricing.
Really now, if the Nationals are going to be like “eff it, if it takes a ridiculous overpay to court a marquee FA in order to help the franchise, let’s do it” … why do it on Werth?
Why not do it on Matt Holliday last year? Or Crawford / Lee this year? Or save it for Gonzales or Fielder next year? Jayson Werth is the least reliable bet for value / dollar spent out of all of them.
Each one of those guys would have cost more, yes, but the bang-for-your-buck is far far greater. They could’ve landed Crawford for like $3M more a year I bet.
I would think that before today they would of had Crawford for under that contract.
Where is Boston going to get their next power bat as things are drying up in bean town.
All of your reasoning makes total sense, however, none of us give a rats ass as the Yankees don’t share a division with the Nationals. They wanna spend their money recklessly, all the more power to them; its just a W for the Yankee fans to imagine Theo stamping his feet.
Agreed. I’m just the type of guy who rubbernecks at a car wreck and wonders what the driver was thinking.
Hey, thats great. Now to comment on your actual reasoning, I don’t think there is any good reason for the Nats to do that.
Yeah but who of those guys would want to go to the Nationals? I’d like to think that even if the Nationals slightly outbid the Yankees for Lee (and they’d only be able to slightly beat them out), would he really choose the basement dwellers over the Yankees just for a few million? Maybe he would, but the Nationals can’t count on that.
Werth wasn’t going to get close to that kind of deal anywhere else, so this is the only way the Nationals could surely get a marquee free agent.
Werth wasn’t going to get close to that kind of deal anywhere else, so this is the only way the Nationals could surely get a marquee free agent.
This.
The problem is that a team like the Nationals is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, they want to become contenders quickly and at least part of that is being able to attract free agents to your franchise. On the other hand, they’re not currently contenders so attracting free agents means having to overpay. It may be the case that they were in contact with Crawford or other free agents and they wouldn’t consider playing in D.C. since they have the sense that they may be able to get similar contracts from currently more competitive franchises.
Werth is an overpay, sure, but it signals to other free agents that the Nationals are serious players in the market now. Of course, there is an additional problem in that they can’t get cheap now, since Werth is not enough by himself to compete in the NLE going forward. This plan only works if you are willing to continue to spend money in the free agent market.
The Nationals also need their big FA investments to yield a substantial ROI in order to make it worth their while. They’ve committed elite-talent money to the entirety of a good-but-not-elite player’s decline years.
There are simply better opportunities to implement this same overpay strategy with other FAs.
This is a good point. The need for teams like the Nationals to get a strong ROI is important because they cannot as easily absorb the cost if the deal goes south.
The problem is if you are the Nationals and want to make a splash on the market two things have to happen: you have to have the money to pay free agents and the free agents have to want to play for your team.
In the 1980s, for instance, there were stories about free agents not wanting to play for the Yankees. So, even if you have the money, and win a lot of games, if no one wants to come to your team it doesn’t matter.
I totally agree that this was an overpay, but if you’re going to try to speed up your process of becoming a contender through the free agent market–which might not be a wise idea either–it might require an overpay in the beginning. Although it’s a bad contract, it should prove valuable for the first few years of the deal, during which time I assume the Nationals hope some of their young players develop and they can attract additional free agents. The key is that if you go this route of building through free agency you just have to be willing to keep spending money.
Yup. But how appealing will the Nationals be to free agents if Werth is slowing down or hobbled in a couple years, and he’s impeding the franchise from making other big deals because the marginal wins gained don’t warrant it?
Werth is just too risky. They could’ve landed someone younger and/or better than Werth who would’ve been a bigger attraction to other FAs in the future. Why not make a big splash next year with Prince Fielder or Adrian Gonzales? Fielder in particular seems like he’ll go to the highest bidder, no questions asked. We know they were right up there with the Tex bidding, they can offer a $150M deal depending on the FA and get SOMEBODY better than Werth.
I agree. I am not suggesting that I think the contract is a good idea. A significant amount has to go right for this strategy to work and it might not have been the right year to undertake such an approach. I’m just trying to figure out the thought process that goes into making such an offer. As I said, I’m guessing that they decided that this was the year to enter the market and, perhaps, they found that they could get no one else but Werth to consider playing for them and they had to overpay to do so. However, it certainly might have been a better strategy to wait, as it could all turn into a “Natinals” situation very, very quickly.
Yeah. Its going to be interesting to see how the team goes from here. Like you’re saying, they definitely need to make some other supplemental long-term acquisitions between now and when Harper/Strausberg arrive to make this kind of move pay off.
OOOHHH YEA!
I <3 it
Poor Bostonians
So judging by this, Crawford should be getting… 10 years?
The Red Sox really are delusional.
They are obsessed with getting exact dollar for dollar value, but that is just not the way free agency or baseball works in the real world especially with revenue skyrocketing the past 10 years.
To make matters worse, inn the long run they often end up spending more resources to make up for these type of draw the line in the sand mistakes.
If only they had the resources of big market teams.
**Masterstroke**
yet they consistently overpay for mid level free agents like Drew, Rentria, lackey, Dice, etc.
But they strangely play hardball with top shelve talent.
Exactly. Look, I think they’re a smart organization and sometimes taking a hard line works. But they’re obsessed with “winning” every trade/free agent deal. AdGon is worth Tex money. Tex was worth the money they weren’t willing to pay him two years ago.
That said I’m not going to kill them for not offering Jayson Werth this deal because it is absolutely ridiculous.
Yeah, this contract is definitely an outlier. I thought something like 5/$75M would have been aggressive enough to win it, and you’d still be crossing your fingers that years 3 – 5 work out.
But Boston needed to get A-Gon done. He’s the type of guy The Red Sox can double-pay on.
I agree that you can’t kill them for matching this offer.
The offer of 4 years though, if Sherman is right, is ridiculous. I am more commenting on what they offer and their expectations when they offer that.
There is no way 4 years would get Jayson Werth.
awesome. i really kind of hope the yankees go out and try to get crawford now. suck it boston
awesome. i really kind of hope the
yankeesTigers go out and try to get crawford now. suck it bostonFixed. That way the Sox lose their comp pick from V-Mart.
+1
They’d still get #19 overall, only Werth could have knocked it back based on Elias ratings.
Wow, you’re right. Didn’t realize Martinez was ahead of Crawford in the Elias rankings.
Well, never mind then.
Just let the Angels have him, they can give him a 7 year contract with vesting options based on how many sac bunts he has each year.
Where is Theo’s bridge?
God bless him. The Nats may not be the greatest franchise right now, but it’s a 126 million smackeroos for a guy who will be 32 years old next May. Would you turn that down? I wouldn’t. I’ll play in Siberia for that cash. As A-Rod proved, you can take the big cash AND play for a winner down the road.
the nats are an up and coming team though, if harper is what people think he is, and strasburg comes back, that’s a really nice core group to build around
Harper won’t be ready until a few more years and Strasbueh is going to lsoe a year of development in 2011. Their farm outside of Harper is only middle of the pack as well.
Nats shouldn’t have bothered at all. They’re not a competing team until at least 2-3 years.
Not with the Phillies and Braves there.
I know the Nats team fairly well, and they needed to do something this year after losing Dunn. The fan base was chanting “Sign Adam Dunn” the last week of home games.
No way Werth could turn that done, he must be the happiest man in the world right now. A late bloomer puts up 3 1/2 great but not elite seasons and gets a 9 digit deal that secures his family’s future for generations.
I only blame players when they take the money then complain about the team losing.
And Werth has made “only” 14m in his career so far – that 126m has more value compared to a 32 year old coming off a 50m+ contract.
I guess the Yankees aren’t the only team who bids against itself.
Adrian Gonzalez just upped his demands. He must be dying to hit the fast forward button one year.
If I were him, I’d wrap myself in bubble-wrap with instructions not to remove until November 1st, 2011.
Wow, what the hell? Seven years at that price for a player who has only been productive in a band box? Why didn’t they pay Adam Dunn that?
I think the Nats’ front office was afraid of how Dunn would age. At least that was the word that leaked.
Hm I guess that makes a bit of sense…but if you are going to overpay, why not spend it on somebody better than Jayson Werth? He’s incredibly overrated.
I guess with Willingham coming off injury, they didn’t want him or anyone else switching to RF. RF has been a hole for the Nats this year. I agree, they should have made a run at Cliff Lee, but an extra $5mm a year isn’t chump change.
124 wRC+ career away isn’t that bad. FWIW he has a 307/.390/.580 line in Washington.
Since going to the Phillies in 2007 he has hit .270/.377/.486/.862 on the road.
That’s pretty solid.
FWIW he has a 307/.390/.580 line in Washington.
That’s against Washington’s normally shitty pitching.
Redsox were never interested in the overated Werth…Ryan Kalish is a future MVP – Peter Gammons
Realistically, how much can this effect CC’s contract? I can’t see them getting that much more than 7/126. It does not seem as if this deal will raise the ceiling of the contract by much, but will raise the floor substantially.
I assume that 7/126 was probably what was the expect contract for CC… it is probably around 7/140 now. It would be harder for CC’s agent to justify him getting a Tex deal than the bidding team to argue that the Werth deal was an overpayment.
My… that was really poorly articulated… my bad, in a rush.
A lot depends on how he performs this year. CC took a step back in a couple of important areas like K’s per nine last year and I think also got some surgery this off season. If he has another slight regression, or a down year which is possible no matter what age, he would probably be smart to keep the 7 year deal. If he dominates, all bets are off.
CC = Carl Crawford I assume.
No, Sabathia.
I think he’s talking about Crawford. He wouldn’t reference a position player contract (Tex) if he was talking about a pitcher (Sabathia).
NVM, I’m too slow. Heh.
hahaha, I”m retarded. I’m thinking about CC’s opt out, haha. my bad
The agent is going to say the Tex-contract was from 2 years ago, markets change. But they need another team to get interested to get more leverage.
Indeed, that WAS 2 years ago. Since then Ryan Howard signed a deal averaging 25 million, so because of inflation, prices have gone UP, UP, UP.
I don’t know if this deal is an aberration because Washington was desperate to land someone in free agency finally, or only a small glimpse of what is about to come with Crawford and Lee. Gotta love the off season.
Werth got his ring and now can plan his vacations in early October and take his new G6 to get there.
win-win.
But I thought most of the people here thought Werth sucked and wasn’t worth a big contract? Now Theo’s an asshole for not signing him to a bad contract?
http://www.overthemonster.com
No it takes away a great option for Boston who fit their needs perfectly. Boston dodged a long term bullet on this one, but it makes their team worse for the next couple of years.
1. Who said he sucked? People said he’s good, but he’s 32, had major surgery on both knees, and has a Boras for an agent. So giving him 5+ @ 18m and trading Swisher isn’t a good use of resources.
2. Nationals giving him that contract doesn’t mean he’s worth that contract
3. It’s a pattern of the Sox offering years that aren’t going to be accepted.
Exactly.
The criticism of Boston is about their offer.
Has anyone actually said that Theo’s an asshole for not giving him a big contract? Most seem to be acknowledging that it’s a large overpay.
People just seem to be amused that Boston lost out on two of their top targets in the span of 3 hours.
References to him jumping off a bridge insinuates that he fucked up. He didn’t fuck up. He didn’t over pay for someone he shouldn’t have.
The over-the-top homer-ism/douchiness on this site is very unattractive and brings out the devil’s advocate in me.
Do you really think there is more homerism/douchiness on RAB than on other Yankees blogs? Sure some jokes get played out, but if the comments really bother you, you have other options, right?
He didn’t fuck up for not offering this contract, not at all. That said, he’s probably not pleased Werth isn’t out there for his team when he was an excellent fit for his team. I think that’s fair to say.
References to him jumping off a bridge insinuates that he fucked up.
Actually it doesn’t. This is actually a very simple minded way to look at it.
Many of the jumping off the bridge references are not necessarily because Theo fucked up. It is simply because he lost out on a player that the Red Sox targeted and to a level need. Additionally, this contract for Werth drives up the price substantially for Carl Crawford, the Red Sox other OF target.
The options for the Red Sox are closing and that is why Theo is in a really tough position. They didn’t get the a player they wanted and their other option is going to be even more expensive and difficult to acquire as a result of this deal.
You are really bad at this devil’s advocate thing.
Thank you, ZZ.
What he said
ZZ, this is exactly what I was getting at. Thank you for saying it so eloquently.
Theo lost out on two of his biggest targets today. Hence, the jumping off the bridge jokes.
He didn’t over pay for someone he shouldn’t have.
While I agree that the Nats appear to have overpaid for Werth, Theo has to judge the market.
By his failing to sign AG and only offering Werth 4 years, there seems to be a disconnect there.
I certainly don’t believe that Beltre is worthy of a 5 year deal, but I bet the market says otherwise.
So Theo has some hard decisions to make. Will he overpay (that is, pay the current market price) for Beltre, or will he move Scutaro to 3B, give the SS job to Lowrie and hope for the best?
Sorry, but offering Werth 4 years was a major low ball offer. I don’t think anyone here believes the Sox should have offered Werth 7 years and $126 million. But they should have done better than 4 years.
And Sox fans are massive douchebags, so bummer for them.
Guys, don’t be a Yankee homer on a Yankee blog.
Don’t worry about Mr. Pants. He just likes to criticize posters on RAB and mixes in a decent point every other week or so.
Is it possible to worry about the opinion of someone who goes by the handle “Poopy Pants?”
Who right now is in the Adrian Beltre race besides Boston? The Angels would definitely make sense but I haven’t really heard any team’s names surrounding Beltre besides the A’s – who just dropped out – and the BoSox. The Red Sox need to lose out or majorly overpay on him.
Oakland and LA…probably another team.
Oakland is out
Angels vs RedSox on Beltre and Crawford at this point, unless the AGon thing comes back to life.
After the Werth deal I’m pretty sure that trade won’t get done. Chicago, Atlanta, Texas, LA, and other teams all need a first basemen…Hoyer can’t possibly be so stubborn and stupid that he’d only deal Adrian to Boston.
Heyman is tweeting that the trade might be done without an extension.
Hoyer said if he can’t do the trade with Boston than he won’t explore any more options. I think that’s because he doesn’t want this to be an on going saga with a franchise player, and because there’s nothing wrong with holding on for him coming into the season, so you don’t want to create bad blood with the player if it comes down to that.
Bad blood? Who gives a shit. He’s leaving next season, why trade him to Boston but no where else? What he wants to give his old master a leg up on the competition? There’s plenty of teams that could offer him a very attractive package, like Atlanta could offer Freeman/Arodys/something else, and easily top Boston’s offer and provide assistance going into next season. His job isn’t to keep a player who is leaving in a year anyway happy, his job is to field a team that can win.
Arodys Vizcaino and Freddie Freeman is pretty damn comparable to the Kelly-Rizzo front-pieces. ATL needs a power hitter to protect Heyward.
Except Freeman annihilated AAA as a 20 year old, and Vizcaino at least has upside, if not injury issues. Rizzo’s good but, he’s a first basemen with mediocre contact and walk rates and good but not great power. What is it, opposite day around here?
But we don’t know what offers have already been fielded, or if Hoyer already pushed the issue enough that he had everyone’s final offers. The Boston deal may have been the only acceptable enough haul.
Or it could just be a ploy to let other clubs know that any other offers must be VERY serious.
There is a certain level of respect that you give to a superstar player like A-Gon though. They’ve already shipped him off to get a physical and go through contract negotiations with a team. You don’t dangle a guy like Gonzales up and down like a yoyo as trade bait the entire off-season.
You’re right, they could just be trying to get leverage. However, if you’re making an offer for Adrian Fucking Gonzalez I’m pretty sure it’s a serious offer
Baltimore’s supposedly in on him.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
I’d like to personally thank the Nationals for giving Jason Werth the craziest contract in sports history. Adrian Gonzalez has to be doing back flips right now and this definitely makes it tougher for the Red sox to sign him if they trade for him.
That’s still A-Rod. #bonerkiller
Yeah. You’d probably have to take werth @ 18M per over Arod @ 29M per for the next seven years. At the time of giving the contract the Arod deal didn’t seem as crazy as this one though.
/me bows
I’d like to personally thank the Nationals for giving Jason Werth the craziest contract in sports history.
Alfonso Soriano says “hey.”
Vernon Wells feels left out
Wells was a center fielder and was 28 years old, 4 years younger than Werth is when he signed that deal. This contract is clearly worse.
Worst days ever for Red Sox fans
1. Game 6 1986 WS
2. Game 7 2003 ALCS
3. 12/5/2010?
12/36/1919
That should be 26 of course.
Bring back the edit function!!
What happened with the EDIT function?
I registered and all, and then one day the EDIT function was just gone. Did RAB explain why?
It was giving us trouble on the backend and slowing down the site, which was very bad considering we installed it in the middle of the ALDS.
Ahhh. Mystery solved.
I guess Post-winter meetings would be a good time to launch or re-launch any features. Does RAB have anything in the works design/features-wise?
the entire second half of the 2009 season >:D
Every day, because they are Red Sox fans.
Any day that the Yankees beat the Sox is the worst day ever, if you read a Red Sox board on those days.
The Werth contract is the kinda deal that “ruins baseball” and makes everything go out of whack with salaries. Much more so than say 25M a year for Cliff Lee..
I don’t understand letting Dunn go and signing Werth for more than twice as much money.
I agree with Avi??????
Say what you will about the Yankees, but they’ve never done this.
They only gave someone older than Werth a 10 year contract worth a lot more money.
The ARod contract is not even considered when other people come up for bid.
The better argument is Burnett.
Braves offered Burnett the same deal, no? They just had to settle for Lowe.
No one was offering Werth 6-7 years.
Burnett haters always forget this. I think Braves offer was 5/$80, so essentially what Yankees ended up paying him. The Burnett contract is the exact opposite of “ruining baseball.” The Yankees gave Burnett what the market rate was.
Yup. That deal actually set the market for 2nd tier FA pitching (ala Lackey, Beckett [basically]) and top tier pitching arb-buyouts that extend into FA type-contracts.
hold on to that thought a few more months.
I guess Pujols could try for it, but he has no market at that number and no Hank.
Who was one of the best players in history coming off (arguably) the best season of his career.
Not saying it’s not a horrible contract, but you can’t even compare Werth to A-Rod talent-wise.
I didn’t compare them talent wise, I compared their contracts for awfulness. Arod wins, in my opinion.
Yes but in order to compare their contracts you have to compare their talent…
Talent usually dissipates when you’re 42 years old. Unless Scott Boras made a clone of 33 year old ARod and cryogenically froze him until the last couple of years of the worst contract ever, ARod’s contract is still much much worse imo.
Not saying his contract isn’t worse, just that there was more justification for it at the time than for Werth’s.
The only justification for either contract is pure idiocy.
of course they haven’t.
And come to think I thought there would never be an outfielder who got that overpaid after Jason Bay. If Werth is worth 18 Million a year I do NOT want to know the price tag on Lee or Crawford.
i think you meant torii hunter.
If Torii Hunter’s defensive rep matched up with his defensive performance that contract would be fine. His offense has been meeting/exceeding expectation.
Kinda ironic, 7/126 is the same as Vernon Wells’ contract.
And Zito’s.
Heh. Mike Rizzo is hoping for different results. At least Werth’s good enough to be the feature hitter of a respectable lineup. Didn’t Wells only have that 1 big year? IIRC, the Wells contract was probably a bigger leap of faith.
I’m Sorry. If you play Major League baseball and your agent isn’t Scott Boras, you’re an utter fool.
Agreed.
Although Casey Close isn’t a bad choice.
Casy Close is the biggest reason Jeter is under contract for three years at a reduced salary while arod is under contract for SEVEN years at an increased salary.
Opt out clause in Arod’s deal..
A-Rod got that deal because Hank and Hal stepped in to negotiate. Cash was ready to let him walk.
No, the biggest reason Jeter is under contract for three years at a reduced salary is because of increased age and reduced skills.
The reason A-Rod is under contract for seven years at an increased salary is because Hank Steinbrenner is a moron.
He’s good on his player’s first big splash deals. He’s overplayed his hand a couple times lately on some 2nd go-arounds, like Varitek turning down arb in ’08 or Damon last year.
ARod still has the worst individual contract in pro sports, but his deal doesn’t affect the overall MLB market. Jayson Werth deals ruin baseball.
“Hoyer can’t possibly be so stubborn and stupid that he’d only deal Adrian to Boston.”
Unless he’s still working for Theo.
San Diego is notoriously laid back. But they gotta be brain-dead there to sit for what Hoyer has done and said. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Theo convinces his dimwit counterpart to accept just two prospects since AG won’t sign.
“Washington Nationals: Garbage + Jason Werth”
Ryan Zimmerman–most underrated player in baseball?
Probably.
If Werth gets 126.. wow.. Washington will be in deep with Zimmerman.
I went to school in San Diego… Californians, in general, are effing morons. The only people who even care about the Padres seem like the guys who were around for Dave Winfield/Tony Gwynn. Even when the Padres were playing well this year, no one cared…
Anyway, this is basically an early Xmas present for Yankees fans… No V-Mart, no A-Gon… no chance of winning the division?
I don’t see how an outfielder sets the market for a starting pitcher.
The Lee bidding only starts at 6 years if there are teams willing to go that high at the start. Seems to me that the Yankees are the only team willing/able to afford 6 years of Lee.
So, really, this has no bearing on Cliff Lee whatsoever, because he and Jayson Werth are two completely different players with completely different markets.
Now, if you said the bidding for Crawford now starts at 7 years, you’d have a valid point.
Wowweeweeewow. Poor Nats. This will get very ugly in years 3-7. Takes the heat off the Zito contract a tad!
I’d hate to be a Sawx fan today. Scratch that. I would hate it every day.
Love the Stark tweet that said Boras didn’t even shop this offer around because it was so far beyond every other team