It was announced today that outfielder Jayson Werth agreed to a deal with the Washington Nationals for 7 years, 126 million dollars. Apparently not many people like this deal though. ESPN's Buster Olney has reported that general managers across baseball are 'going nuts over the deal.' ESPN's SportsNation asked it's Facebook fans about the deal, and the result was loud and definitive: Nats wasted a lot of money. I want to know why everyone is against this deal. Werth has been one of the centerpieces of the Phillies offense the last three years that made it to back-to-back World Series, winning one of them. This past season they made it to the NLCS, as well, and lost to the eventual champions, the San Francisco Giants. His stats have been eye-popping as well considering he never got a chance before the Phillies. Yet, nobody seems to think Werth deserves the money.
Yankee first baseman Mark Teixeira had put up similar numbers to Werth before signing his deal and no one made a fuss about that, which was worth about 60 million more and one year longer than Werth's by the way. Teixeira is not much better than Werth either. He only has more homers because he played in the small confines in Texas. Adrian Gonzales, San Diego Padres' first baseman, is also said to make Teixeira money and that is also widely accepted as a good deal for him. Gonzales is also not that much better than Werth. Werth is a great baseball player, and is not a distraction off the field. I don't see why him getting paid is causing such an uproar.
I understand that this deal is literally worth more than the Nationals have spent on any free agent over the last 20 years according to ESPN reporter Jayson Stark, but that doesn't mean they overpaid for him. At some point, the Nationals were going to pay big money for somebody, why not it be Jayson Werth? He has proven himself over the last three years with the Phillies as a reliable starting outfielder than can hit for both average and power. He has proven that he is a down-to-Earth, low maintenance guy that will do what is asked of him (just look at the first few years of his career). He has nothing left to prove. Let's face it. Jayson Werth is worth every penny of his new contract and everyone knows it.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5888329
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4262
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4937
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=5405
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3790141
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