In the wake of Ryan Howard's megadeal, talks between the Phillies and rightfielder Jayson Werth are at an impasse, reports CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury.
“I’ve had dialogue with [GM] Ruben [Amaro Jr.] since the winter meetings,” said Jeff Borris, Werth's agent. “I don’t want to rule out the possibility of his re-signing with the Phillies, but it would appear right now we’re at an impasse.”
Werth, 31 next month, is being paid $7MM this season as part of the two year, $10MM contract he signed last January, and will be a free agent after the season. He's finally started to live up to the potential that landed him on Baseball America's top 100 prospects list four times from 1999-2003, hitting .278/.378/.499 since joining Philadelphia in 2007.
MLBTR's Luke Adams looked at Werth's situation a little more in-depth earlier today.
With Howards mega deal, I kinda assumed this… Not a big shocker. Now the question is who signs him
at least his agent is Borris and not Boras
I’d take Werth over Howard any day and he would be much cheaper. Oh well for the Phillies.
You sir are a moron.
oh, i wouldn’t say that. rbi’s aside, howard will probably hit about 10 more homeruns than werth which is fine, but he will probably K about 100 more times as well. werth plays plus defense and will definitly cost less than 25million and has plus speed. probably 16.5million(just a guess). so if i can keep 8million dollars for another player and take werth over howard, id do it as well.
I wish I could unlike his comment… you made some good points.
I’d take Werth over Howard, too. Just like I’d take Braun over Prince. Better overall players.
Their is a different between taking Braun over Prince than Werth over Howard. The difference is that Braun hits .325 while only taking a little 10 hr difference. Werth hits only about .265 which about what Howard hits. yes Werth plays plus defensive however for Howard has drastically impoved his defense. i will take Howards 150+ Rbi and 45+ HR with his improving defense over Werth 35+ HR and 90+ RBI’s. also, werth has only done it one year and not year in and year out like Howard.
If the Giants decide to up payroll (which they will need to until Zito’s contract is over) Werth would be a nice pick up. Borris is also Barry Bonds agent, so they already have a working relationship.
Yeah, but don’t forget about Aaron Rowand. When he played in PHI, he had good numbers, and then when he transitioned to AT&T, his stats suffered. If Werth signed with the Giants, there’d be 2 Aaron Rowands in the outfield. You CERTAINLY don’t want that.
I read speculation that the Giants would be interested on Giants blog last night. The author also reminded the readers what happened last time the Giants signed a free agent 30 something outfielder from the Phillies.
At first blush it sounds like a fine idea on a short term basis (maybe two years with a third option year), but Werth will probably want more security. A potential Werth signing means Bowker, Schierholtz, Velez or Torres gets bumped. Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing for a couple of those guys to go kick rocks.
Werth is a different player though, he can also swipe 20 bags a year. After this season, I hope they at least try to trade Rowand. Of course they’d have to eat most of the contract but 2 years less of Rowand is fine by me.
Yankees? I mean I know they want Crawford, but Werth could be a nice addition. Maybe even the O’s? Trade Scott for a pitcher, God knows they need pitching, and pick up Werth. Thoughts?
YES! Thank you Ryan Howard Extension! Now it’s time for the yankees to sign him, play him in RF and have Nick Swisher be the DH/Occasional 1B/RF/LF, while getting rid of NJ (not that I don’t like him, it’s just in the interest of fielding a much better team), or using him as their pinch hitter (although 5MM is a bit too high for a pinch hitter who walks more than hits).
Imagine our Defense in the OF with Granderson in LF, Gardner in CF (granderson will start to slow down a bit, and with gardner proving his capability of sticking at the Major League level, this is the best defensive arrangement possible) and Werth in RF… mmmm
1. SS D. Jeter R
2. LF C. Granderson L
3. 1B M. Teixeira S
4. 3B A. Rod R
5. 2B R. Cano L
6. RF J. Werth R
7. C J. Posada (or J. Montero, Cervelli would move down to 8) S/R
8. DH N. Swisher S
9. CF B. Gardner L
My mouth waters when I look at that batting lineup!
They committed to locking one player up for the years after his prime. That doesn’t mean they have to make that same commitment for all of them. Take the draft picks, save the money, sign a backup for Brown, and move on.