Jayson Werth's deal is ridiculous; Tigers were smart to pass

Lake Buena Vista, Fla.— Happily for the Tigers' reputation, they didn't make news Sunday as teams checked into the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel for this week's Winter Meetings.

Headlines instead belonged to the Washington Nationals. And to Jayson Werth.

And this wasn't the kind of news anyone really wanted to hear, at least this side of Jayson Werth, his agent Scott Boras, and a seemingly delusional Nationals front office.

It was preposterous to the point of being disgusting that Washington handed an outfielder, soon to be 32, a seven-year contract worth $126 million.

Those of us who have long defended player salaries as being the very product of a free-market system that should ideally be left alone are having major conscience examinations today.

This was borderline sick. And what it will do to the Tigers and to the rest of baseball as these meetings, and the off-season market, evolve was the kind of talk that rattled a hotel lobby and team suites galore as the meetings kicked off.

The Tigers were at least interested in Werth. They knew his asking price would be heavy but something half-sane: perhaps five years, $80 million, minimum. It might go to six years and $100 million, at least as an initial demand from Boras and Werth.

Most clubs viewed Werth's price to be in that $80-$100 million range, with $100 million being the rough estimate for what it would take to sign the other outfielder and free-agent Cadillac who is available, Carl Crawford.

Landscape changes

Now the entire landscape has blown up, courtesy of a Nationals team that offered about one-third of Werth's paycheck for one of the top power hitters in all of baseball and a player they owned through the past season, Adam Dunn.

Dunn wanted to sign with Washington. But, after fooling around and losing him to free agency and to the White Sox, the Nationals panicked and handed over a contract to Werth that should be some fun for the Nationals to digest as Werth moves deeper into his 30s but not deep enough to finish off a salary schedule that will cease when he's closer to 40.

Abruptly, the market has changed. Crawford just became more expensive, maybe just expensive enough to once and for all knock out a Tigers team that would have loved going head-to-head with the Los Angeles Angels and Yankees in a bid to add Crawford's bat, speed and defense to Comerica Park's territories.

The Tigers, though, must see Werth's deal — and Crawford's eventual loss of speed — as traps they will have been wise to sidestep.

It looks as if they will now discuss seriously bringing back Magglio Ordonez for another year. It's contingent on his fractured ankle — which required surgery a month after it was broken — being sound, and his asking price being something the team can at least defend when Ordonez is a few weeks from turning 37.

But the chances of everything working out are reasonable as the Tigers try to add another dependable, 12-volt bat to the middle of manager Jim Leyland's lineup.

Trade possibilities

What can't be ruled out this week is a trade. And a trade could affect the Tigers' infield as much as an outfield that ranks as their most likely point of attack.

The Tigers' Dave Dombrowski might be the most aggressive GM in baseball. You can quarrel with his decisions — the second-guess is half the fun of following baseball — but he and the Tigers tend to identify their needs immediately and move instantly to boost their roster.

They did it with Joaquin Benoit, a right-hand reliever whom the Tigers paid generously ($16.5 million — or $109.5 million less than Werth will draw), and they did it again in signing Victor Martinez for what now appears to have been the low discount price of $50 million for four years.

They still need a bat, at least one. And if this week they added Ordonez, and swung a trade for an upgrade in the infield, no one in baseball would be surprised, all because Dombrowski's reputation was cemented long ago.

Would he trade one of his hotshot young pitchers, Jacob Turner or Andy Oliver, as part of a deal for a slicker outfielder, second baseman, or even as part of a package for an upgrade at shortstop or third base?

Probably, with Oliver the prospect most likely to change addresses.

Something dramatic will yet shake down from the Tigers' suite, at least if Winter Meetings history is any clue.

But be glad, very glad, for fiscal sense and for the Tigers' stead that it didn't already happen. A reckless contract is no way to make news

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20101206/OPINION03/12060379/Jayson-Werth’s-deal-is-ridiculous--Tigers-were-smart-to-pass#ixzz17MYM7BZP