Like late home run, Werth is a goner

by Eric Schwartz

Monday September 20, 2010 

Like late home run, Werth is a goner thumbnail

If you are a fan of Jayson Werth, Sunday was a bad day for you.

You may be thinking “Wait, what? Didn’t Werth hit a walk-off home run that sent the Phillies to a dramatic 7-6 win over the Nationals to keep the team’s lead over the Braves in the NL East at three games?”

He sure did. It was news that came after that homer that should give fans who like seeing Werth in a Phillies uniform a long pause. Werth went out and made a deal with the devil. In other words, he hired Scott Boras as his agent.

Boras, who justly or not, is  the symbol of everything that is wrong with financial aspect of baseball. He is also known as being the best at what he does, which is take teams behind his woodshed and beat them endlessly until every last penny falls out of their pockets.

When a player wants money, and a lot of it, they hire the services of Boras. I’m sure the second Werth’s bat made contact with that 9th inning home run Boras’ eyes lit up – with money signs. In Boars’ mind, each foot that ball traveled equaled another thousand dollars in his pocket.

I don’t blame Werth or Boras for the deal they made. Werth is a free agent who wants to and deserves to be paid. Boras is an agent who does his job better than anyone else in the field. In a way it’s a match made in heaven.

Just not for Phillies fans.

Fans began to accept the fate that Werth would not be around past this season when the Phillies sank money into extending Shane Victorino. The team now has over $150 millions sunk into just 16 players next season, so signing Werth, who will be looking for a contract of at least $150 million, just doesn’t seem plausible. Philly.com’s Matt Gelb, puts a positive spin on the situation, saying Boras this will ensure that Werth and the Phillies will go to arbitration. The Phillies will offer a deal, Boras will reject it, another team will sign him and since he will be a type-A free agent, the Phillies will get two draft picks as compensation.

You see even the positive side of the story ends with Werth leaving town.

As I stated earlier, realistic fans knew this would be Werth’s last season in Philly barring something unforeseen. This almost certainly would have been the case with or without Scott Boras.

But adding Boars to the story just makes the situation feel a lot worse.

Filed Under Phillies

Comments

2 Responses to “Like late home run, Werth is a goner”

  1. BigGreek24 on September 21st, 2010 12:24 pm

    Lately Boras hasn’t gotten the “best” deal for his clients – - just ask Johnny Damon. I’d say that Boras visited the Yankees woodshed on that one. As for the draft picks, that could work out badly depending on who signs Werth. Teams only have 1 pick per round, and when the Yankees signed Sabathia, Texiera and Burnett before last season, the team that lost the first of those three got the draft choice. I believe the other teams had to settle for sandwich picks.

  2. Eric Schwartz on September 21st, 2010 1:10 pm

    Damon was a rare miss in terms of getting a long term contract, but you could argue that at $8 million this season Damon is still stealing money from the Tigers for hus 8 homer, 47 RBI season.

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