Werth deal still talk of winter meetings

Werth deal still talk of winter meetings


Leave it to the Washington Nationals to steal the show at Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings.

Wait, what?

Even after the Boston Red Sox finally put the finishing touches on their acquisition of first baseman Adrian Gonzalez from the San Diego Padres all anyone wanted to talk about on Monday was Washington's outrageous deal with outfielder Jayson Werth.

In case you were living under a rock or captivated by a full dose of NFL action on Sunday you may have missed that the Nationals agreed with the former Phillies slugger on a seven-year, $126 million deal, easily the most lucrative contract in team history.

Werth's deal is actually $6 million more than what the franchise sold for in 2002.

Essentially, Werth replaces Adam Dunn in the lineup. You can argue whether or not he is an upgrade, but wouldn't Washington have been better served re- signing Dunn and adding a couple of pitchers, like a Carl Pavano or a Jorge De La Rosa, than putting all their eggs in the Werth basket?

The Nats don't strike me as a win-now team and this is a win-now move.

Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised, though. The Nats were on the periphery of Mark Teixeira a few years ago and are always linked to some big names. While most people laugh them off when their name would come up, maybe this was a move to let everyone know that they can start to be taken seriously.

Bottom line was they made a nice offer to Teixeira before the 2009 campaign. It wasn't enough. They wanted to make a splash and gave Werth an offer he couldn't refuse. They had to blow him out of the water to come there and they did.

I think Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said it best, however.

"It 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."

Speaking of the Red Sox, no surprise that they completed the Gonzalez deal. I didn't buy the news on Sunday that the deal was falling apart because of the lack of an extension. They had come to far to back out because of that and everyone knows a deal is going to get done with him at some point.

The Red Sox were always the most logical fit for Gonzalez. He is going to rake at Fenway Park and keep in mind San Diego general manager Jed Hoyer worked for Boston GM Theo Epstein. He knows the Red Sox system very well. Hoyer got exactly what he wanted from Boston.

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