By Steve Johnson
I was always told money didn’t buy happiness. Well unless your name is Jayson Werth, and you signed on to make 126 million dollars over the next 7 years with the Washington Nationals. Can you blame him? No you can’t. Sure you can be mad as a Phillies fan, seeing one of the key players over the last 4 years up and leave via Free Agency. Would you have done the same? Sure you would have. Now don’t be bias because you’re a diehard Phillies fan. The Phillies weren’t going to pay him that kind of money, neither were the Red Sox or the Yankees. And that’s why he signed that deal, because it was all about the money to him. Sure he probably won’t win another World Series in his career, he won’t put up the same numbers he’s put up, but turning 32 in May, he definitely won’t have another chance of making 126 million dollars. The Washington Nationals are the only team that offered him that much money because they are the only team that had to offer him that much money. They just lost their top hitter in Adam Dunn to the White Sox, and they lost their phenomenal young pitching ace Stephen Strasburg to Tommy John surgery. In this economy it’s not about winning, it’s about selling tickets. For a team that struggled to reach a 50% attendance mark last year, this move was Werth it to them. This isn’t the NFL; they can’t get away with a bad team and still sell out stadiums. With a team like the Nationals, they won’t be able to afford anyone else to contend for an NL East title, let alone a Pennant. So that’s why this move works out for both Jayson Werth and the Washington Nationals, because in the end it’s all about the money, can you really blame them?
