The Jayson Werth Conundrum - Why I Feel Bad For Jayson Werth

I remember when I heard that Jayson Werth had signed a 7-year $126 million contract with the Washington Nationals. I wasn't shocked. I wasn't hurt. In fact, it played out just as I had suspected it would, and pretty much just like Jayson Werth hinted it would. Werth made no bones about it. He was looking to get paid.

Jayson Werth followed the money. I said it then and I'll say it now... I don't blame him for doing that. Clearly the offer that the Phillies made him in order to stay with the team was no where near what the Nationals were willing to overpay for his services. A man has to do what a man has to do. Jayson Werth looked out for himself and his family.

Understand that I never really was a Jayson Werth guy. I didn't really have any emotional investment into whether he stayed or left. The only part of the Jayson Werth saga that really concerned me was what we would do for a right-handed power threat. Until Hunter Pence came along a couple of weeks ago, that fear was a valid one.

A lot has changed for Jayson Werth since he signed that mega-deal with the lowly Nationals. His performance this year (.227 Batting Average with 14 HRs and 45 RBI) has a lot of people asking what the Nationals were smoking when the made him the face of their franchise. Others wonder where the player Werth has been the past few seasons has gone. It's obvious that Werth has the ability. He's already showed everyone that. But he simply looks nothing like the player he was when he was with the Philadelphia Phillies. He looks like he's lost out there on the field. He looks detached.

It was fun to boo Werth and call him a sell out and all of those things when this season started. It was fun to imagine him pining to be back with his old team, winning games again. It made me laugh when he sent Ruben Amaro Jr a text that said "Boo!" when the Phillies re-signed Cliff Lee. It was fun to watch Werth get off to a slow start. I may not have loved the guy, but I still thought he was a decent ballplayer.

It's not so much fun to pick on someone that looks like he's been raked over the coals. In fact, it was kind of sad to watch him stand in and take called third strikes this weekend and then turn around and wander back to the dugout like he didn't really know what had just happened. It was actually pretty sad. It's no fun to pick on those that can't defend themselves. And to me, that's what Jayson Werth has become. A punchline that can't defend himself. By now everyone has heard of the bar in the DC area where you can pay whatever Werth's batting average is for a beer.

And this is coming from someone that never really liked the guy in the first place. Some part of me really hopes Jayson Werth can get it back together, because watching his sad sack act is really not that fun.