The number one decision of the Phillies off season concerns rightfielder Jayson Werth. Should they let Werth walk via free agency? Or should they get trade centerfielder Shane Victorino or somebody else and re-sign Werth?
How high should they be willing to go for the talented rightfielder? Will they be able to negotiate with big money agent Scott Boras?
The Phillies have some big-time hitters from the left side, but they don’t have much from the right side, once Werth leaves. They’re going to pay a price for signing leftfielder Raul Ibanez to deal that was a year too long.
Werth still has some good baseball in him. He’s an outstanding defensive rightfielder with a great arm as we saw demonstrated in the NLCS.
Werth is as talented as any player on the team. He can hit with power, run the bases (when he’s paying attention), play a great right field and get big hits under pressure.
They say Werth hits the ball farther than Howard. You can’t let him walk, if you can get him for a decent price.
I say make him offer for up to $15 million a year. You can’t go much higher than that. Four years for $60 million dollars. Hopefully he wants to stay here and continue to get chances to win the World Series.
Chances are that Boras will screw it up but you can’t do anything about that other than offer him a fair deal.
I agree G,
Werth/Agent Boras will be looking for a similar deal the Matt Holiday received last year for the Cardinals
which was a 6 year deal worth around $100 Million and are thinking $18 Million per Season
Phils will offter a 3 year-maybe 4 year deal at most,in neighborhood $15 Million per Season
Werth is still young enough that if he took a 3 year deal and continues to play well, that he could have another big payday in a few years again
The Bottom line is Werth willing a to make $10 Million less over a 3-4 year period to stay and play in the Philadelphia, who gave him his chance to be an everyday player or does he want to cash out and go to the highest bidder (Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees) and still have a chance to be on a winning team
A 3 year – $45-$50 Million deal is more than a fair offer by the Phils
I say unload that bum ,World Series Strike out “”King “”Ryan Howard , if they can, and give Werth some of his 25 million dollar a year money !!!! What a friggin waste this guy is ,I wouldn’t give him 50 cents because he never comes through when we need the runs . 25 million a year to strke out ,go figure !!
The only way that he takes a 3-4 year deal is if he really wants to stay in Philly. There is no way that he will be signing another substantial contract at 35-36 years old. He will be looking to max out his money now while he has the chance at Holliday like or close numbers. He has that opportunity this off-season.
You are right G, all they can do is make a fair offer and watch him walk away. Can’t see how the Red Sox would let him get away. Also the Dodgers, Yankees and Braves.
And Bird, be realistic… Howard may not be worth 25 million, but you cannot make up for his production over the season. In a down year with injuries he had over 30 HRs and over 100 RBIs. Has he been clutch, no but neither has Utley or most anyone else on the team. Werth was terrible in the post season.
The Contracts given to Ibanez,Polanco and now Howard over the last 2 off-seasons have ended the “Window of Opporutnity” to play in the World Series consistently..
All 3 players are now untradeable and are overpaid and are getting older where injuries and production will start to decline… (reminds me of the Mike Lieberthal,David Bell assanine Contracts of 10 years ago which took the Phils a couple of seasons to recover from)
Back on Werth, If he goes (which I think 90% he will), then simply replacing him with OF D Brown is not the solution for now there will be 4 left-handed batters in this Phillies Line-up (Utley.Howard,Ibanex and Brown) If the Phils think they swa enough LHP in the PLayoffs just wait to every team they play..
Where is the Right Handed Bat that offers balance,power and protection behind Utley/Howard
come from…
Do you trade Utley while his market value is still high and slide Polanco to 2B and then go out and
Sign Free-Agent 3B A Beltre… Lots of moving parts to put together once Werth is gone..
Listening to cJason Werth speak sounds like he doesnt even want to come back to Philly. Eskin asked him can Philly get a home town discount Werth said Im from Illinois. lol. Word is that Werth felt disrespected with everyone else getting long term contracts but him. Also they said theres one way to keep Werth. Trade Utley there contracts add up. Ike Reese on WIP also brought up an interesting point about Utley. He implied that Utleys numbers were down (power numbers included)and he is always injured. He also talked about the bad hip which all point to performance enhancing drugs. Being an athlete I would think Reese heres things that he may not be able to really touch on. Interesting thought though. I already believe that last year a reporter brought up Ibanez when he had 20 home runs before all star break and Ibanez denied it. After that accusation Ibanez hasnt hit 20 home runs in a year and a half and is a 220 hitter. You tell me.
Good points Daggolden and I agree with you,
Reading Werth’s comments tells me that he is as good as gone and looks forward to his next team.
Also remember theincident with fan and his kid and the rumor about fooling around with Utley’s wife,
I think he just want’s to get out from the shadows of the Phillies and branch out with another team (Red Sox or White Sox)
I think Utley has peaked and is starting to decline rather rapidly as is J Rollins..
I also think when JC Romero stopped his Nutritional PIlls/Setroids stuff last year that he lost his edge and effeictivenss and has never been the same Pitcher so I hear you about what Reese mentioned and wouldn;t doubt it for a minute.
It will be very difficult for the Phils to repeat as Division winners without a legitimate Right Hand Batter like Werth. They cannot move forward in 2011 have a middle of the line-up of Utley,Howard,Ibanez and D Brown, Left Hand Pitchers will have a field day with this line-up
u guys go off the deep end to much
philly fans to dramatic
how many fuckin teams go to 3 world series in a row
and tho i was pissed with howard as all of u u guys are over exaggerating
its baseball its the only sport where if u fail 70% of the time u still a good offensive player
i dont recall these statements when the big piece singlehandedly carried us to the playoffs the last 2 yrs
we had alot of injuries this yr maybe alot of the guys werent 100% or had all of their timing back
and u guys always read into money y do u care what another man makes (sound like chics to me ooooo he makes 25 mil stfu sound like a groupie)
our chemistry wasnt there this yr we were 2 games away
u guys talk like we’re the mets
phitans following the same formula as ur beloved eagles
just try 2 create a top 5 team and when in the offs hopefully we get on a roll
well atleast phillees got on a roll once
and tho im sick im still very proud of this team
they fight fight fight and thast the main thing i ask for and i feel like those guys were just as sick as me
i couldnt always say that for the birds or sixers for that matter
so y u guys wann come in here an make 1000 adjustmets
im wit g resign werth if possible
dont change a thing lets go getem next yr
charlie i trust u
theres lots of moving parts to put together on losing teams
we r a 4time nl east champion 2 time nl champion and just lost in nlcs to the only rotation who was as stout as ours
theres not much adjusting to do
only a fool fixes something that aint broke
and addition here or there but no tinkering needed
we r not the mets
Amen PW
These fans are way too critical of this team, the players and the manager. Also, the Giants put up very good pitching. Against this pitching you can expect a drop in production from the bats. The difference, the way I saw it was defense. The Phillies made way too many critical defensive miscues. Pitching, which they had, and defense wins championships.
I still think they should have moved Werth before the trade deadline to Boston or someone else to get
a LHP Relief Pitchers and a young outfielder who bat Right-handed.. This team has too many left-hand bats for next year (Utley,Howard,Ibanez & D Brown)
To PW,
I have to disagree with you,
Look at a lot of the succesful teams this past year and many of them excelled at fundamental baseball.
With Pitching being dominant and especially in the NL, teams that could steal,move base runners,
Sacrifices, and play good solid defense are teams that did well (Giants,Padres,Braves) as an example.
The NL has lots of good young pitchers so sitting and waiting around for 3 Run Homers and not having the ability to string 3-4-5 hits together is not going to bode well for the PHils Future.
I look at 3-4 players who are all in decline (J-Rollins,Ibanez,Polanco,Utley) due to their ages,various ailments,injuries and possible ties for HGH/Steroids..
If you think about it, ever since the Ibanez/Romero incidences and stories back in 2009 about alledged HGH/Steroids use, their performances as well as J-Ro and Utley have trended downward ..The other thing is the injuries, nothing major but lots of nagging ones that tells me their bodies are beginning to break down for whatever reason (Age,Amount of Games,Past HGH/Steroids use,bad luck) call it what you will, but there is no denying that many of the Phillie players are in decline.
They have to do something regarding the lack of power/run producers on the right side. If they hand the keys over to brown there 3,4,5,6 are all Left handed bats. Every time the play a team with some LH pitching they will struggle. I think they have a couple of options. They can try to trade either Ibanez or Victorino to free up some money to resign Werth. Or go after a second tier Right handed OF free agent to platoon with Brown. Something has to be done in order to get a legit RH bat in this lineup if not it could be a ugly season at least from a offensive standpoint
Howard is good during the regular season but stinks during playoffs when facing good pitching. During regular season his strikes outs are tolerable, but doesn’t give u anything in Yankees World Series, or last 2 playoff series this year. The World Series win 2 years ago, Howard actually hit but Utley,Wertth,Rollins,Ruiz, and a few others were better. GET RID OF HIM!!!!!! A 300 HITTER would help us in playoffs more than HOWARD anytime, because he would actually get a hit,oh and instead of striking out, a 300 hitter would give us some walks. if no one wants HOWARD drop him
No one is interested in Howard at his current Salary Structure, remember that Basebal players contracts are guaranteed..You have about 3 Teams in the entire MLB that could even afford it (Yankees,Red Sox and Anaheim) and none of them need a 1B. The Phils, plain and simple are stuck with him, you reep what you sow and they foolishly locked him up and a crazy number and now will have to live with it for better or worse (just like Ibanez and soon to be Polanco)