The Phillies added one $100MM player this offseason in Cliff Lee, but they lost another in Jayson Werth. The former Phillies outfielder told Paul Hagen of The Philadephia Daily News that he believes the team could have had both he and Lee if they'd planned things out better…
"I think if they would have played it right they would have had us both," said Werth. "I mean, they traded Cliff away for prospects and then realized that was probably not what they should have done. They ended up paying him a lot more than they would have if they'd signed him the year before. Then we would have had him. Chances are if they had signed him before they traded him, it probably would have made it a little easier to sign me."
Werth said that there are no hard feelings and he understands that the game is a business. Once he learned of Philadelphia's interest in Lee, he concluded that he wasn't coming back. "[It] kind of made it seem like they were playing us against each other a little bit," he added.
The 31-year-old Werth signed with the Nationals about ten days before the Phillies brought Lee back.
Move on.
Sincerely,
A Braves Fan.
Fans of irrelevant teams shouldn’t be making comments
Sincerely,
A Yankees fan
Fans of teams with dented starting rotations shouldn’t be making comments
Sincerely,
Brian Cashman
What do you mean by a “dented rotation”? Honestly, the Yankees have one of the better rotations in baseball!
Respectfully,
A.J. Burnett: #2 Starting Pitcher, New York Yankees.
Nicely played.
Pwned
Actually, anyone can make a comment.
Sincerely,
Freedom of Speech
Ok? Good for you.
Ok. Thanks?
Fans of irrelevant teams that will be fighting it out with the Blue Jays for 3rd in the AL East shouldn’t be making comments
Sincerely,
The Sawx and Rays
how do you know, can you see the future? Can people understand this is, plus/ minus a couple players,same team that went to the playoffs last year right? and a comment saying well if Red SOx weren’t injured, then fine, but that’s something someone from your top 2 could be saying at end of season as well. And irrelevant? If a loss to the blue jays knocks you out of contention I’ll laugh because that’s pretty relevant.
Now, onto actual topic, this does seem like some sour grapes by Werth. You’re aNat focus on winning with them now.
What makes the Rays better than the Yankees, aside from the rotation? And since when do the best rotations automatically make the playoffs and average rotations automatically miss the playoffs? Twins had a better rotation than the Yankees and got swept. Cardinals had a much better rotation than the Reds and missed the playoffs. A’s had a much better rotation than the Rangers and missed the playoffs. Phillies had the best rotation in the playoffs and didn’t even make it past the 2nd round.
The Yankees have not had a top 10 or so rotation since 2003. They’ve made the playoffs every year since then except 2008.
As I said, a good bullpen and good offense saves a shaky rotation. And possibly if lucky enough, could even win you a WS (See 2000 Yankees and 2006 Cardinals, arguably 2 of the worst teams to win a WS)
Yankees rotations in previous years have been decent. This year it is down right bad after Sabathia.
Hughes is FAR from “down right bad”. The key thing the Yankees need is AJ Burnett to bounce back. I certainly can’t expect him to do any Worse than he did last year.
And you couldn’t be any more wrong about the Yankees having decent rotations in recent years
2004- Mussina, Lieber, Brown, Vazquez (101 wins)
2005- Mussina (below average), Randy Johnson (average), Kevin Brown (awful), Carl Pavano (awful), Jaret Wright (HAHA), Chieng-Ming Wang (rookie)
2007- Wang (he did decent), Pettitte (did okay), Mussina (AWFUL), RODJA CLEMMONS (half year, decent), Hughes (rookie), Key Igawa (DO NOT get me started)
Put Hughes on a team other than the Yankees and he has maybe 10 wins last season. And I don’t think the Rays Rotation is great either. Both Sox teams have better rotations, Tigers, A’s, Rangers, and Angels have better rotations for sure and maybe even the Blue Jays all have better Rotations than the Yankees and Tampa in the AL. And I would say the NL probably has the top 3-4 rotations in the league with the Phillies, Giants, Cardinals(iffy now with Wainwright) and the Braves.
WOW. You really think I was going based solely on his win totals? The kid is 24 years old and you’re already calling a young pitcher garbage? I’m not saying he’s great or anything, but he is far from garbage.
Plus I can also say that the Rays rotation is nothing more than average after Price. Shields is terrible. Niemean is average, Davis going into his 2nd full year is decent. Hellickson is a rookie although I think he’s going to do good but lets wait and see
Is it better than the Yankees? Of course. But I’d take other AL rotations over the A’s, including the Athletics (best in the AL), Red Sox (if healthy), and White Sox.
By the way I’m not defending Murphy’s comment, I think he’s stupid for saying that. I’m just simply asking why you think the Rays will finish ahead of the Yankees.
Umm, cause they have much better SP and one of the best young lineups in baseball?
Okay. Well I think the Yankees will still finish at least 5-6 games better than the Rays. Red Sox take the divisoin. But hey this is baseball and we know anything can happen, so let’s wait and see I suppose.
How contradictory is this comment? You say an irrelevant teams’ fan shouldn’t make comments, and yet you do. Way to be dumb.
Sincerely,
Me.
Riiiiiight, since he made a dumb comment by saying the Braves are irrelevant, you’re going to make an even dumber comment by saying the Yankees are irrelevant? C’mon man…
Irrelevant to this post was what I was implying. I’m not stupid.
irrelevant? what are you smoking?
Sending the wrong message to your NEW team. Stop focusing on the past(phillies) focus are the team your on and help them win.
Shortly after he signed with the Nationals, Werth realized that his best days are behind him, back there with the ’07-’10 Phillies.
Those Phillies were easily the best team in baseball over the past four seasons: Four straight NL East titles, three straight NLCS appearances, two World Series appearances, one World Series win.
Now he’s playing for a team that will be lucky to win 70 games. And that teams’ future depends on a pitcher recovering from Tommy John surgery and a prospect who hasn’t even played a professional game yet.
If you were Werth, you’d probably be wishing you could use that $126MM to build a time machine as well.
what the hell is this man talking about? played them against each other? Werth jumped at the first mega deal he saw, months before the Phillies were even interested in Lee. They just didn’t want to pay you buddy, sorry. You’re a glorified 4th outfielder with 2 good years under your belt and a lot of luck. Have fun for the next 7 years…
Maybe you should learn to read a little better – “The 31-year-old Werth signed with the Nationals about ten days before the Phillies brought Lee back.”
Ten days is not “months” – It’s ten days. Obviously Werth knew they were going after Lee by then. Shut up.
actually, Ruben Amaro has said that the reality of getting Lee hit only about four days before they signed him. It’s still not months, but I doubt that Amaro would have called up Werth — a free agent — and said “Hey, I’m going to swoop in to get Lee in a few days.”
that would have been pretty badass if he had, though
Werth is a little shortsighted here. If the Phillies didn’t trade Lee, they wouldn’t have gotten Halliday. They might not have gotten Oswalt. Would you rather have Holliday, Lee, and Oswalt, or Lee and Werth?
I think young Dominic Brown and others can at least cover close to Werth’s production and the other guys in the lineup can surely pick up the slack. Not to mention the runs saved with the pitching trio above.
HALLADAY
um… Werth’s not a 100 M dollar player. At least, he shouldn’t be.
I doubt he would have put up the numbers he has over the past few years if he didn’t play his home games in Citizens Bank Park.
You do realize Werth’s last home run with the Phillies was an opposite way homerun in AT&T’s right field? As a team in 2009 they hit more hr’s on the road than at home.
I looked up his splits and it’s weird — last year he was WAY better at home. struck out a ton more on the road. had a .999 OPS at home vs. .838 on the road.
In 2009 he still had more power at home, but otherwise had decent road numbers. is OPS+ was nearly identical for road/home. (His BABIP at home was below average, so that may explain something).
In 2008, he was better on the road, including in power numbers. but his OPS at home was simply lower than in 09 & 10 — it’s not like he ever lights it up on the road.
I suspect he made adjustments to hitting at CBP to take advantage. Wonder how long it will take for him to adjust to DC.
CBP was actually pretty much middle of the pack last year as far as overall park factors are concerned (16th). 12th in 2009. 15th in 2008.
While it looks like it should be a hitters park, it really doesn’t play that way.
For what stat(s) are those?
ESPN Park Factors which compares overall runs by the home team and away team versus their stats on the road. I replied with some more detail earlier but I included the link so I guess it has to be approved. Long story short, based on that ranking, CBP is middle of the pack in runs and a bit above average in HR’s. Not commenting on the validiaty of the formula as a good gauge or not. But thats what ESPN uses at least.
What’d you do Jayson, steal copies of their bank records? They clearly weren’t willing to overpay for a guy with 2 good years out of 8. Focus on willing this season and the 6 thereafter with Washington, be proud to do so, and move on.
Na they rather spend more on a player who has 3 good years out of 9 and whose skills and ability will deplete faster.
If you’re a baseball player and you have an interest in remaining with your team and taking loyality & integrity over a bank heist pay day on a horrible team…….why the hell would you choose Scott Boras as your agent??!!?? Jayson has his ring and couldn’t care less about anything that isn’t green. Its called saving face and Werth just did the lamest attempt at it.
And the Phillies were never going to give a late bloomer silly money like Werth got from the Nats in the first place. Be happy Jayson, the Nats will be competitive in a couples of seasons and your contract will be the anchor that drags them back from adding some needed pieces to get into playoff contention.
I’d say Cliff Lee was a relatively late bloomer as well
but could they have kept werth, lee and halladay? that’s the big question. you can only have so many players making 20mil+ a year on one team…
he’s delusional.
Jayson Werth, just shut up.
Seconded. The guy seems to have buyer’s remorse and is clearly annoyed that he is no longer in red pinstripes. Phillies and Werth made their decisions. Time to move on.
I seem to remember a question being asked about giving the Phillies a “hometown discount” and the answer being “I’m from Illinois.” Enjoy D.C.
Nats fans must be thrilled that their club paid all this money out to a guy that wishes he was still on his old team…3 days into Spring Training.
Werth was a nice player for the Phils. Excellent defender and good protection for Howard. But he’s not worth nearly what the Nats are paying him, because imo, he’s not a guy that’s going to carry an offense for long stretches.
He’s a good supporting actor…just not “The Man”.
They could have. All he had to do was turn down six years and about $113 million and accept arbitration.
Of course, I’m kidding. But I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again—Jayson Werth is going to talk himself right out of being a fan favorite here in Philly. He’s being paid to be a mentor on a young team, and all he’s doing is running his mouth and setting a bad example. Nyger Morgan 2.0.
Apparently $126M doesn’t buy you loyalty or any sort of tact with the media.
Werth’s exposing himself as a big wiener.
Not sure splitting hairs over the decisions of your former team is really Werth it. And….I just punched myself for typing that. But it’s true.
I wonder if Werth saw the cartoon you tube video and just got really mad… He obviously is still bitter see you in April Jayson!
a little bit of wishful thinking, werth needs to focus on hitting doc and the 1-2-3 inning boys.
Actually I think Werth may not be that far off. If Philly had offered Raul Ibanez, Joe Blanton, and Dominic Brown in a trade for a low-cost LF or reliever, they could have afforded Werth if they really wanted to. But why add ANOTHER 20MM dollar player longterm when you can have 2 players making 20MM combined short term and one that can match Werth’s production making league minimum for 3 years? If he were the face of the franchise, perhaps. But he’s only the face of the Geico commercials.
Could have had Werth and Lee or Lee, Oswalt and Halladay. Ill take the aces.
Hate to tell ya this Mr. Werth, but the Phillies didn’t want you back. Dominique Brown has much more upside and he can hit right handed pitching. They were willing to keep you only if you accepted his salary.
Domonic Brown has a sister named Dominique? And she can hit too?!?
Come on Ruben. Get her signed.
He’s actually pronouncing his name correctly. Just spelling it wrong. His name is “Domonic” Brown, but is pronounced “Domonique.” I know, I was stunned when I found out too.
So…. I think the Phillies would prefer Halladay and Lee to Werth, Lee and the prospects but 0 Halladays. And the lack of Lee might’ve necessitated the Oswalt move…. so Lee, Halladay, Oswalt… no need for Werth.
And didn’t he just come out yesterday and say it was his responsibility to his fellow players to break the bank? Phillies just simple wouldn’t match the Nationals spend…itude.
Werth is a product of citizens bank ballpark. He is a mediocre ballplayer who played on a good team last year. Have fun with this Nats: an Aaron Rowand-type outfielder with a Barry Zito-esque contract…YIKES! good bullet dodging there Brian Sabean.
I find this hilarious. Werth can’t help, but comment about the Phillies no stop because he knows he will be on a losing team for the remainder of his career and the Phillies will be competing for World Series Rings the next few years. And what does he mean when he found out the Phillies were interested in Lee. No one knew the Phillies were interested in Lee except Rueben. I mean no one the Phillies roster knew before the deal was done except Halladay because they talked to him about it.
Also if the Lee deal was never made, we would not have Roy Oswalt on the roster because they would not have felt inclined to go get another arm this past season.
If he really wanted to go back to Philly, and wasn’t trying to break the bank on a new deal, he wouldn’t have hired Scott Boras, as his agent.
The easiest path to the playoffs? Really? Those fumes coming from Harper’s cheesy Ultimate Warrior face paint must be making you dizzy.
Harper had 35 at bats in the AFL. I don’t even think that qualifies as “very little”.
I bet I could find 20 guys who dominated in 35 AFL at bats and never even made a difference on a minor league team, let alone a big league team.
Sorry to put the kibosh on the Harper-hype, I just like to see a guy actually accomplish something before I tag him a franchise savior.
Minor leagues are way different than the big leagues.
Because Amaro wasn’t going to pull the trigger unless he could re-stock the farm system or sign Lee to an extension. It wasn’t the same deal, but they were both necessary for the completion of the entire package.
Haha. Wow! I really goofed the spellings on that one. That’s what I get for typing without having my coffee first.
But yes, Lee and “Halladay” were in the same trade. Look it up.
We get it. The AL is so much more difficult than the NL. And prolonged success isn’t top talent performing at its best, but only exposing how weak every other team around them is.
You should probably look it up before you make another comment, they weren’t. It was two separate trades on the same day.
Come on, who else other than Mike Rizzo was going to offer a guy who has never reached 100 ribbies $126 million dollars? Those numbers (i.e: 99 rbis) came from a hitter friendly ballpark. Hes a quality player, but not one that’s worth $126 mil. And lets put it this way, Ruben Amaro knows his stuff.
Werth’s always been about the money. He’s…bitter…about how things went with LA and was always looking for a large, large payday. I don’t really blame him, but I think he could handle himself better right now.
Oh great…another AL fanboy. The use of the DH is an advantage of the AL, its why having interleague games against a seasoned power hitter over a bench player as DH is unfair. Over the last 10 world series victories have been split been leagues. I know this last WS was low rated but didn’t you see the Giants score more runs in the first 2 games of the the World Series than any other team in history? Against the guys who won the AL pennant?
I will eat crow. Fair enough. Thanks for the comment because obviously you already pre-understood that I was going to go and do the research.
The WS is a piss poor example of determining what league is better. As is the all star game too despite the AL winning like 12 of the past 13 years or so.
It’s much better to go by interleague series’ than by World Series. One is a best of 7 games. The other consists of 250 games.
In 14 seasons, the AL has won the majority of interleague games 10 times, and has won every season since 2004.