Prior to signing with the Philadelphia Phillies, free-agent pitcher Cliff Lee had talks with Jayson Werth, who had already signed a mega-million deal with the Washington Nationals, about the possibility of the two joining forces in the nation’s capital.
But unlike the cretin, Lee took the opposite path and did what he thought was best. That is, play for a team that is regarded as the favorites in the National League and play for a team that has been coined “ace-a-holics”(which refers to their surplus of ace pitchers).
So when Werth took to the podium donning his National’s gear, he played coy with the media when asked about his former team and their big free-agent splash.
“I missed that in Philly,” he said, “What happened?”
Who are you fooling, Jayson? We all know how you feel right about now. Being stuck on a team that has been in a re-building stage ever since they changed cities isn’t too fun now, is it? Oh, and I’m sure watching your former team reload in your absence is fun too.
Clearly, Cliff Lee is a major part of Philadelphia and their hopes of winning another world series. Although, he won’t be the team’s primary ace, as that title belongs to reigning Cy Young winner Roy Halladay. But, in the word’s of Jayson, Lee is their “boy”.
“They got their boy back, I guess,” Werth said.
Getting back to the gist of the story, Werth had planned for the two to be the centerpieces of the Washington off-season, and the two had talked about their future together, according to The Washington Post.
“While addressing his offseason activity, Lee revealed that he and Werth, who became close friends during their time together, discussed signing with the same team this offseason. After Lee decided to head back to Werth’s old team, he let Werth know personally.”
When Werth found out about the Phillies new acquisition, Lee says “he wasn’t the happiest person in the world.”
Who can blame him, though? Now that the Phillies have not one, not two, not three, but FOUR aces in their rotation, the National League teams will be faced with a difficult assignment every time the Phillies appear on their schedule, unless they just so happen to luck out and face their “non-ace” fifth starter in one of those games.
Philadelphia, at least on paper, looks like a safe bet to not only win the N.L. East, but to earn another trip to the World Series. But according to Werth, the Nationals may be a sleeper team.
“…people are going to see the Washington Nationals are for real. We’re going to play the style of baseball that is going to bring championships to this city.”
I hope he isn’t serious about that prediction…
Who cares. Werth went for the money we know that. He’s already been apart of a World’s Series championship so his priorities are the same. Lee’s family like the area and Werth probably could care less and he is at liberty to decide what he wants to do with his own life. Everyone doesn’t feel all warm and fuzzy about Philly. Werth did what was best for him and Lee did the same for himself. Period.
Werth has gotta be a little bitter though since the Phils didn’t overpay for him.
120 million well spent… there must be something in the air in D.C. because not only can the government not spend our money wisely but the teams down there make horrible decisions with money. i.e. Haynesworth, Mcnabb, Werth. Luckily I could give a crap. Go PHILS!
I hate when the “media” or wannabe journalists try to play one side against the other and act like Werth is a greedy SOB for taking money while Lee is such a great guy because he took less money to play here. That’s just utterly dumb. Every players has their own priorities. For a player who’s been underpaid for a while now and already apart of a championship, his priorities are more about money. Lee on the other hand, not winning one and STILL able to get paid over 100 million, made a great choice for himself. People need to just stop it. Lee is no better person than Werth over this. But this is Philadelphia where we fall in love with players so everything they do is awesome and other players that do the opposite are terrible.