Phil Sheridan: Phillies smart to let Nationals show Werth this kind of money

Jayson Werth is worth $126 million over the next seven years because he has a contract from the Washington Nationals that says he is.

That's great for Werth, whose signature on that contract is a confession that free agency for him was always about getting the last possible dollar. That's great for Scott Boras, the agent/hypnotist who manages to persuade Major League Baseball teams to part with wheelbarrows full of money for his clients.

It is not so great for the Phillies, who lose a really good player and key contributor to their superb three-year run as the class of the National League. But it is worse for the Nationals, a dead-on-arrival franchise that is gambling Hall-of-Famer money on a guy who may very well be a product of his place in the Phillies' powerful lineup.

You realized the depths of the Nationals' delusion when general manager Mike Rizzo described Werth as "a centerpiece of our ball club" in announcing the deal. Rizzo can be forgiven, to an extent. This, after all, is a ball club that finally had something to be excited about in Stephen Strasburg, only to see the electrifying rookie pitcher blow out his right elbow and require Tommy John surgery after just 12 major-league starts.

Strasburg may well return to form. Let's hope so. He seems like a fantastic kid, and it was just awful to see all that promise turn to worry and despair. Besides, the world needs future Yankees and Red Sox and, let's face it, Phillies.

But the Nationals are not on the radar in the nation's capital, and they desperately needed to do something. Adam Dunn, their best hitter, just left for a free-agent deal with the White Sox. The Nats were nominally interested in spending what it would take for our old friend Cliff Lee, but the lefthanded ace really does want a chance to win a World Series while getting overpaid for his talents.

What to do if you're the Nats? Write Jayson Werth an enormous check.

Let's be really clear here. Werth is a very, very good player. He worked his way back to that level after a devastating 2005 injury to his left wrist. Werth runs well, plays defense with full commitment (he's not Bobby Abreu, in other words), and emerged as exactly the hitter the Phillies needed: a righthanded bat who could protect Ryan Howard and cash in on leftover RBI opportunities.