Is Jayson Werth it?

By Sam Flamont
Updated: December 7, 2010

Werth photo taken by Icon SMI

Wow is all I can say right now. I knew Jayson Werth’s new contract was ridiculous but I had no idea how ridiculous it was. Let’s examine the 18 million dollar man.

After going through some numbers of the greatest players in baseball history the player who closest resembles Jayson Werth is….Paul Konerko. Also, please note I had to go way down the list to come up with Paul. Paul is a good big league player and he has had a nice career but one of the elite he is not. Need Proof? Good, I was hoping you would say yes. Then I further researched the issue against a player who just signed a deal last year for 17 million. The numbers are astounding.

The numbers provided are a per year average of each statistic.

Paul Konerko:12 Million per year

(BA.280)(HR-32)(2B-30)(BB-64)(K-96)(Runs+RBI-186) (OB%-.356)(SLG%-.498)

Jayson Werth:18 million per year

(BA.272)(HR-25)(2B-29)(BB-75)(K-152)(Runs+RBI-176)(OB%.367)(SLG%.481)

Matt Holliday:17 million per year

(BA.317)(HR-29)(2B-44)(BB-63)(K-112)(Runs+RBI-218)(OB%-.388)(SLG%.543)

I guess Matt Holliday picked the wrong year to be a free agent. Matt would probably get 25 million this off season…Sorry Matt.

This is unreal besides Walks per season Mr. Holliday completely dominates Mr. Werth but is 1 million per year his Junior. Did you hear that sound? It was the sound of ticket prices going up yet again. Oh the other sound was Babe Ruth saying he would get 50 million per year, and he is probably right.

I can say without any doubt in my mind that this contract is worse for baseball than the contract the Mariners gave Ichiro. Jayson Werth is at best an average big league player and is now making the money reserved for great players, or at least really good players.