Phillies Werthless

Ha ha, punny post title. Jayson Werth went for the money instead of an opportunity to keep winning. I figured he'd get a large enough contract from someone that he wouldn't return to the Phillies, but I would never have expected that it would be the Washington Nationals -- not the Yankees, not the Red Sox -- that landed him. To do so they gave him a 7-year deal worth $126 million. You can't fault Werth. He was signed for pennies on the dollar (relatively speaking) by the Phillies in 2007 coming off a wrist injury. Even with salary increases after that, they got four years of good production out of him at a bargain price. The Nationals are overpaying, but it's the only way that sad-sack franchise is going to sign anyone of quality at this point.

It's just a shame that the Phillies couldn't find a creative way financially to make a deal that would have persuaded Werth to stay. The platoon of Ben Francisco and Ross Gload or Domonic Brown (who was so bad in Winter League play in the Dominican that he was removed from the team; the Phillies' saying he was "tired and sluggish" comes off as spin doctoring) will not match Werth, at the plate or, especially, in the field. And the best of the free agents may be, God forbid, Jeff Francouer. Barring a clever trade, the Phillies are weaker in right field. Their spin is that if the players who struggled or were hurt last year improve on their numbers, they'll more than make up for the loss of Werth. But none of them can play right field and their own position at the same time, so even if the offense is fine there's still a defensive hole.

There's a lot of spin going on now, but make no mistake: even with that pitching staff and most of the same players that have contributed to four NL East titles, two NL titles and a World Series championship, even if you feel that despite losing to the Giants in the 2010 NLCS they're still the team to beat in the National League, the Phillies are a weaker team than they were a few days ago.