Jayson Werth signs with Nationals; 7 years, $126 million

[trwi7]

http://zozone.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/12/werth_close_to_signing_with_na.html

http://twitter.com/TBrownYahoo/status/11539587943890944

Well that one came out of left field.

[endaround]

7 years? Wow.

[JoeHova]

Wow, that's a huge deal for a guy who's pretty old and not an all-time great.

[And That]

Boston is going to offer Crawford 10 years and $640 million dollars now.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

if Derek Jeter is worth 3/51 + an option year....

[craigharmann]

Wow. $18 million per year? Wow.

[kramnoj]

This is basically the Alfonso Soriano contract, minus a year. If the Nationals are lucky, Werth may still be a decent player when Strasburgh and Harper on the team. Chances are that he will be a nice player on a team that isn't competing for a couple of years, maybe the Nationals put together a competing team for a couple of years, and then the Nationals can only hope that the back end of this contract works out better than Soriano, Carlos Lee, or Helton.

[TooLiveBrew]

Boston is going to offer Crawford 10 years and $640 million dollars now.

This cracked me up.

 

I really don't know what to say about this deal, but maybe Washington would actually be a viable landing spot for Fielder now? This seems like an absolutely horrible contract from Washington.

[brettac1]

I love Jayson Werth... but wow.

[PKBadger]

Boston is going to offer Crawford 10 years and $640 million dollars now.

This cracked me up.

 

I really don't know what to say about this deal, but maybe Washington would actually be a viable landing spot for Fielder now? This seems like an absolutely horrible contract from Washington.

They did offer Teixeira a mega-deal 2 years ago, so obviously the Nats aren't afraid of spending money. And without Dunn, they have a big hole at 1B.

 

I'd want Jordan Zimmerman, but I doubt they would offer him.

[And That]

I wonder if news of the Werth contract might have scuttled the Adrian Gonzalez deal. Gonzalez may well have said, "beat that deal."

[brewmann04]

all i can say wow and where have the Nats come up with all that cash?

[endaround]

all i can say wow and where have the Nats come up with all that cash?

The Nats play in a huge market that is recession proof.

[kramnoj]

AG reportedly wanted 8 years and Boston was offering 6. There was also speculation that the Red Sox may have wanted to agree to a deal in principle, but not sign it until after the 2011 season started so that it wouldn't be included in luxury tax calculations for 2011.

 

AG should be asking for the Teixeira deal and the Red Sox were probably hoping that he would take a Halladay type of extension.

[Oldcity]

How do teams continue to hand out these absurd contracts? He's 31 years old!

[nate82]

all i can say wow and where have the Nats come up with all that cash?

The Nats are not a small market club. I wish people would stop lumping both the Orioles and the Nationals in the small market group. Neither of these clubs are small market clubs. Both the Nationals and the Orioles offered contracts to Teixeira for close to what the Yankees offered Teixeira. So this shouldn't be a surprise that they gave Werth this the only surprise here is that they spent their money a year earlier. The Nationals probably should have waited until next off season when they could have landed Fielder or Gonzalez.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Wow. That's a lot of cash for a guy that's marginally better (and older) than Corey Hart.

 

Wow.

 

What? Oh yeah. Wow.

[PrinceFielderx1]

Corey Hart could be a very valuable trade chip now. I can't believe the Nationals gave Werth this big of a contract!

[RockCoCougars]

This will rank right up there with the Zito deal. Unbelievable.

[kramnoj]

This is one example of when a player gets paid close to his Fangraphs value. If there is enough competition for services, those dollar values aren't completely worthless.

[danzig6767]

How do teams continue to hand out these absurd contracts? He's 31 years old!

Teams have wealthy owners who want to win now and thus they'll sell out the future for potential immediate results

[endaround]

Wow. That's a lot of cash for a guy that's marginally better (and older) than Corey Hart.

 

Wow.

 

What? Oh yeah. Wow.

Werth is tons better than Hart. He is however not worth a contract until he's 39.

[splitterpfj]

Congratulations to Mr Werth, and his family...what else can you say?

 

I hope Nats fans have some fun with this, but in the end, just like Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee, this will go down as a horrible contract.]

 

 

Mr Boras will never have many fans in this part of the world....but he's very good at what he does.

[jerichoholicninja]

I would definitely say this increases the chances of Prince going to Washington. They want to win and will do anything to be competitive. They are completely misguided and kidding themselves if they think they can compete right now or anytime soon and I don't want to see Prince traded at all.

[pitchleague]

this signing takes me by surprise, as it has others. The money isn't the issue, obviously, but the years. I'm stunned.

 

As splitter said, good for him and his family that they will be able to live comfortably for several generations. Based on what I've read about the guy, he deserves it. Let's hope he can do some good with that money as well.