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

[colbyjack]

I'm not too surprised that the Nationals get involved, but I am surprised by the years and dollars involved. The great thing about the offseason is that all teams may think they have a chance to compete.

 

What is a little surprising to me is that with Werth's acquisition they will be looking to move Josh Willingham, who is somewhat of a poor man's version of Werth (and similar to Hart). I think I read that they may have moved Willingham anyway, largely due to money IIRC.

[dlk9s]

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

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/919/150centlaughoff.gif

[pretendastronaut]

You have to wonder sometimes how Boras pulls these things off. I just read a report this morning that Werth wanted 6 years and nobody he had met with was interested in going that high. And then, BAM, a team that wasn't even in the discussion, goes in for 7. Craziness.

[BrewCrewForever]

dlk9s, that gif is amazing, I laugh every time I watch it.

 

Good for Werth, bad for the Nationals.

[mothershipconnection]

If absurd baseball contracts and the overall health of our economy correlate well, we should all breathe a sigh of relief.

[Gobias Industries]

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

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/919/150centlaughoff.gif

Where's Bert?

[TooLiveBrew]

Gotta love Sandy Alderson:

“Makes some of our contracts look pretty good,” Alderson said. “That’s a long time, and a lot of money. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington.”

[trwi7]

Where's Bert?

 

http://psykiroms.com/t0mmyr/tp2/imageshack/temp/50cent-bert.gif

 

 

[Funketown]

That's pretty brutal. I hardly noticed this with the Marcum trade going on (which hasn't been mentioned on SC yet, of course). What could possibly be going through a GM's head when he thinks "Hey, I should sign Jayson Werth to a 7year/$126MM deal"!

[Invader3K]

Maybe they just figured they needed to sign a "star" with Adam Dunn having left town?

You also have to wonder what kind of contract Carl Crawford is going to cash in on now.

[BrewCrewForever]

Carl Crawford can ask for at least 8 years now.

[Schlitz001]

Maybe it wasn't possible for the Nats to sign Werth for any less then this absurd contract. That's all I can come up with. Does anyone outside of the Nats front office think this is a smart move? It will be really interesting to see how the rest of the FA contracts fall into place after this.

[jjkoestler]

Maybe it wasn't possible for the Nats to sign Werth for any less then this absurd contract. That's all I can come up with. Does anyone outside of the Nats front office think this is a smart move? It will be really interesting to see how the rest of the FA contracts fall into place after this.

Unfortunately I think it's bigger than the rest of the FA contracts this years. It will play into arby cases and future FA signings too. The players union has to be ecstatic.

[Schlitz001]

It's just a bad way to start the winter meetings off in my opinion.

 

Is DC a worse FA destination than Milwaukee that they have to shell out this kind of a contract? And I don't buy that they need a face to the franchise. Zimmerman and Strasburg are perfect for that, plus I hear Werth is a grade A jerk. It does make me a little happier about the guys we do have signed to extensions.

[Invader3K]

. It does make me a little happier about the guys we do have signed to extensions.

I was just thinking yesterday, "Boy, this makes Corey Hart's contract look like a pretty good deal now."

[CheezWizHed]

Gotta love Sandy Alderson:

“Makes some of our contracts look pretty good,” Alderson said. “That’s a long time, and a lot of money. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington.”

Now its official... No one in DC is reducing spending.

[TooLiveBrew]

Ken Rosenthal posted the Werth contract breakdown. The $4M bonus is to be paid between Jan. '11 & Jan. '12.

 

'11: $10M

'12: $13M

'13: $16M

'14: $20M

'15: $21M

'16: $21M

'17: $21M

 

I have a hard time understanding why a team would want to be paying Werth $20M+ AAV for his age 35-38 seasons. I guess it's based on the economy rebounding, but yikes. If Werth is *ahem* worth (sorry) $20M when he's at that age, I guess good for the Nats.