The Washington Nationals have surprised the baseball world by signing right fielder Jayson Werth to a $126 million, 7-year deal. Werth has played the last four seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies where he helped the organization win the 2008 World Series. The Washington Nationals have not had a winning season since they played in Canada and were called the Montreal Expos.

The deal makes the 31-year old the 12th highest player in Major League Baseball. He’s been to only one All-Star game.

Deals like this crack me up. The amount of money the Nationals will be paying Werth just seems silly. As if Werth wouldn’t have accepted the offer if it was only $125 million. They just had to offer Werth $126 million and not one penny less. How many generations of Werth’s decedents will never have to work a day in their lives simply because an ancestor they never knew played right field for a really bad baseball team?

What’s really strange about this deal is that only this weekend the Nats allowed Adam Dunn to leave and sign a $56 million dollar, 4-year deal for the Chicago White Sox. If the Nats were willing to over-spend for a player, why not over-spend on one of their own?

Adam Dunn
Age: 30
Avg: .260
HR: 38
RBI: 103
OPS: .892
OBP: .356

Jayson Werth
Age: 31
Avg: .296
HR: 27
RBI: 85
OPS: .921
OBP: .388

I don’t run the Nats, but if I did, I think I would have tried to re-sign Dunn instead of Werth. I already would know that Dunn is a good fit for the team.  The players like him and he puts up much better power numbers than Werth.  Plus, Werth has spent the last four seasons playing with really good players.  Opposing pitchers can now pitch around Werth.  That’s something they couldn’t do when he was in Philadelphia.

It should be interesting to see how this deal looks after a couple of years.  Right now it looks stupid.