Jayson Werth, one of baseball’s top free-agents, is coming off the best season of his career. The 31-year-old outfielder hit .298 with 27 homers, 85 rbi’s and a .388 on-base percentage.
Those numbers are solid, but certainly not worth the money the Washington Nationals just gave him.
How much money exactly? Over the next seven years, Werth will make $126 million. ESPN’s Jayson Stark reported, “The Nationals offer to Werth was so far above everyone else that Boras didn’t even ask other interested teams if they wanted to match it.”
That’s called overpaying.
When news broke on the deal, Stark said, “The words I’ve heard most so far [from those at the Winter Meetings]: ‘stunned’ and ‘shocked.’” Others at the Winter Meetings, like Stark, were flabbergasted.
Seven years, four more than Washington had previously given a free-agent, and $126 million, $4 million more than the Nationals were bought for in 2002. All of this for a guy who wasn’t even the best player on the Philadelphia Phillies; he wasn’t even one of the top 10 players in baseball.
Starting pitcher Barry Zito received this exact contract in 2006. Since, he has gone 40-57 with an ERA near five as a member of the San Francisco Giants.
Then, two weeks later, outfielder Vernon Wells signed the same deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. Since, he has reached base a measly 32 percent of the time and has averaged only 20 homers per season. Werth could be down the same road.
But that’s not my reason for mentioning Zito and Wells, though the decline in production is telling. When those two were signed, they were in their mid-20s. Werth is turning 32 in May. Zito was 27 when he signed; Wells was 26.
Though neither Zito or Wells has lived up to the contract (as if anyone could swinging a bat or throwing a ball), their respective teams had reason to believe the longterm deals were ones worth giving.
But this amount of money and years thrown at Werth, is just pure idiocy.
I get that the Nationals wanted to make a big splash. They, just like the Boston Red Sox when they traded for Adrian Gonzalez, wanted to make up for their inability to sign Mark Teixeira two years ago.
Yet, to be aggressive in this sense is hard to fathom. I can somewhat understand giving a 26-year-old such length and money. But Werth is no spring chicken, even only started to receive regular playing time at 28.
This startling move crosses Werth off the Red Sox list of desired free-agents, among other teams’ lists. Now, Werth’s other suitors can turn their attention to Carl Crawford, the other top outfielder on the open market, if they so desire. But, with this deal given to Werth–this astronomical, incomprehensible, and ill-advised deal–the price for Crawford, two years younger and far more versatile, just skyrocketed.
The dollar in baseball just changed drastically, and certainly not for the better.
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