Amaro says Phils want Werth and can re-sign him
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Amaro says Phils want Werth and can re-sign him
Daily News staff
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. knew as soon as he sat down for his season-ending news conference where the initial questions were headed. “Shoot, ask whatever Werth questions.”
Amaro said the Phillies want Jayson Werth to return and have enough money to re-sign him, but said that will “depend on what the ask is” and “how it will affect other things.”
Werth figures to be the main attraction among position players on the free-agent market. Amaro said he will talk with agent Scott Boras within the next 48 hours.
The Phillies have exclusive negotiating rights until 5 days after the completion of the World Series, but Amaro said he expects “this will go deep into the offseason.”
“What is going to drive the bus is Jayson and Scott,” Amaro said of the time frame. “Typically these things don’t move particularly quickly.”
“Jayson had a good year. It wasn’t an extraordinary year,” Amaro said. “He had a tough time with men in scoring position. It wasn’t as productive a year as he had in the past. If he is not with us, there are players that we can acquire and or we have in our own organization that can help us be as consistent.”
On the question of payroll, Amaro said, “We haven’t talked budget and we haven’t gotten that far down the line. We are only two days into the offseason. We are going to have some money to do some things … I’m going to have to figure out with the rest of our baseball operations people the best way to utilize the money.”
Amaro said the Phillies, “have to be open-minded as to how to improve the club, whether it’s starting pitching or bullpen, offensively, we’ll try to address it.”
Amaro said the three biggest issues for the Phillies this offseason are addressing the team’s six free agents, the age of the team, with players “starting to move into and past their prime age of production” and the bullpen, which he said “could have been our Achille’s heel. It turned out they pitched very well.”
As for the possibility of breaking up the team’s core group as the players generally move into their 30s, Amaro said, “It’s my job to be creative but I’m pretty happy with our core players.”
Amaro said the Phillies are still evaluating their players and assessing their offseason targets. However, “we’re not going to feel comfortable on anything until we know where we stand on Werth and go from there.”
* Amaro called it a “successful season with a disappointing finish,” because they expected to be in the World Series. “I think this one stung pretty good. The players really believed they are World Series champions and they will be chomping at the bit come this spring.”
* On manager Charlie Manuel, who is entering the last year of his contract. “At some point, we will probably address Charlie,” Amaro said. “We have not [yet].” The Phillies also have asked the entire coaching staff to return and they are working on contracts.
* On the team’s free agents, other than Werth, including relievers Chad Durbin and J.C. Romero, lefthander Jamie Moyer, Mike Sweeney, “I’ve gotten indications that many of them want to come back. It depends on how much they want to come back.”
* On whether it is safe to say that starting pitching does not need to be addressed: “You can never not address things. We’re pretty pleased with our rotation as good and as it performed at the end of the year. When we acquired Roy [Oswalt], we did some pretty extraordinary things as far as wins … No question having those three guys in our rotation had a great impact … Joe Blanton pitched extremely well at the end of the year. Kyle as a fifth starter, threw 180 innings and had a pretty good performance. As far as addressing it, I don’t know where it is on the totem pole, but we’re pretty please where we are with that.”
* On productivity from the leadoff spot: “Both Shane and Jimmy were better players than they performed the last few years. We would like more out of the spot. Jimmy has done in it in the past. Shane is not as proven … There is not a reason [Jimmy] can’t get back to being as productive a player as he has been in the past.”
* On the offensive issues: “I don’t think they have to change their style of hitting. I think, though, we have to have a little more consistent approach as far as what we can expect from them. We asked [Greg Gross] back and I think he made some strides over the last couple of months of the season gaining their trust and their understanding of what he preaches and what Charlie preaches. I think we are on the right path.”
* On the offensive issues specifically in the playoffs: “This happens sometimes. There are blips in the screen where guys don’t have good years. We didn’t have in the course of the playoffs where one player was really hot. Cody Ross, obviously, was really hot for the Giants. We didn’t have that guy step up and really do it. That really hurt.”
* On the Giants: Amaro said he thought the “Giants were getting slighted here” and that “the Giants played better baseball.”
Comment removed.
Utley and Rollins and Howard and Victorino. Who had a stellar year? Here and there, there were stellar months. But who had a stellar year? None of them. The trick will be to see who had a hiccup, and who started the inevitable decline. It may be time to trade Rollins or Utley or Victorino while the value is relatively high. They could get quite a bit for any of them. I'd love to see any of them return, but if this post season was a sign of things to come, it may be time to move on. If Ruben waits to long, it will be a shame.— Scorekeeper- And the baseball gods spaketh to Jason Werth, and they said giveth the Phillies thine most sacred gift, giveth them thy hometown discount, and Jason Werth did listen to the baseball gods and gaveth to the Phillies thy hometown discount, and the baseball gods did smile upon him, and it was good.— sla6yer
- Did anyone ask him if he'd consider trading Victorino to free up money for Werth? Not that he'd answer, but it would be nice to know at least it's been suggested to him.— B in DC
- Mighty Howard (Casey) has struck out........— Bill20
It's good to hear that RAJ understands he needs to make this team younger. It's got to be tough to move veteran players, but he's got to get some guys in there that are on the way up. I can't think of anyone on the team except Domonic Brown that still has any upside in front of them.— Hame of Famer- @sla6yer... you made me laugh out loud, dude! So let it be written, so let it be done! HAHAHA!!— TerryW
- “depend on what the ask is” Well yeah Rube,
if the asking price is 1 million a year, I am sure you will be able to sign Werth -
sounds like deflection to blame Werth when the asking price is to high.— phillydude - Should have signed Ibanez to 2 year deal.— knicks84
Bill20 -- aww. the phils lost(i'm hurt too) and the eagles are going back to starting vick. man, sucks to be you. lol @ you- Believe it or not, I would trade Ryan Howard, sign Werth and put him in the cleanup spot. Howard gets paid $20 million-plus per and he set a WS record last year in strike outs and had zero RBIs this year in the NLDS. He is not worth that kind of dough. His days of hitting 50-plus HRs are over. Pitchers know how to get him out now. He will still be a 30-100 man but his non-perfomrance over the two past post seasons does not make him a reliable franchise player making that kind of money. We could get LOTs for him from an AL team!
- ....And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey (Ryan Howard) stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped-
"That ain't my style," said Howard. "Strike one," the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And its likely they'd a-killed him had not Howard raised his hand.
With a smile of Christian charity great Howard's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Howard still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."
"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Howard wouldn't let that ball go by again.
The sneer is gone from Howard's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Howard's blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Philly - mighty Howard has struck out.
— Bill20 - Time to break up the core of this team ... I doubt Rollins has much value on the open market ... but I would consider moving him for some youth— azsixerfan
- haha. I cant argue with anything that Amaro said about Werth. I happen to agree with all of it and think he is overrated, good, but overrated. That being said you have to think that Amaro bringing up Werth's bad points in a press conference wont sit too well with the Werth camp and likely means that Amaro is greasing the skids for his departure. He's sort of letting us know now why he wont be signing him. Ive been following sports for a while and I have never seen a GM so up front with a players deficiencies in such a public forum. Especially since for Werth to stay it would mean that Werth would likely have to be willing to give a large discount to the phillies. Amaro is a smart guy. You dont slap a guys face in public and then ask him to come back at a discount. Werth is gone and Ruben just told you so in his own way.— Sewellmatt
- I have heard before that if a deal is good deal both sides will feel like they got screwed a little. hopefully if they compromise on the years the money will fall into place and Jayson can return.
Please save my right field seats from impending boredom. Give me the Jayson Werth variety hour back!— WerthsOtherWife
