Amaro says Phillies want quick resolution on Werth
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Amaro says Phillies want quick resolution on Werth
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
Jayson Werth is one of the most coveted free agents in all of baseball. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
An ESPN.com report surfaced earlier this week that quoted a Phillies source as saying the team had no chance of re-signing right fielder Jayson Werth.
"No chance. None. Zero."
That was the exact quote from the Phillies' source in a story by Jayson Stark.
Asked about that statement Friday, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro emphatically shot it down.
"That's unequivocally a false statement," Amaro said. "That did not come from me and I would not express that."
Amaro would not comment on whether he has made a contract proposal to Werth's agent Scott Boras, but he did say the Phillies hope to have a relatively fast resolution on whether the free agent right fielder will return to the team.
"I don't think it's something we're going to let go on for a while," Amaro said. "Hopefully we'll find out if he's a viable option to bring back in a short period of time. Regardless of what happens with Jayson, there are things we need to do."
Amaro said one of the things at the top of the team's agenda is strengthening the bullpen.
"I think there is some help out there for us and we think we can improve our bullpen," Amaro said. "We'd like to think we can do something from the left side, but there aren't that many guys out there."
Minnesota's Brian Fuentes and Hisanori Takahashi and Pedro Feliciano of the New York Mets are among the left-handed free-agent relievers available.
Comments (57)
Looks like RAJ is simply drawing a line in the sand with Mr. Boras. If Werth wants to come back, it WILL happen....which I personally hope is the end result.— dri_as_a_bone- I agree with RAJ. Boras has a history of holding his guys out to get the very last dollar. I want Werth back as much as anyone but this cannot drag out. I don't think the money will be an issue as much as the years will be. You cannot go more than 5 and I'd prefer 4 but we'll see. The Red Sox may give him all the money and the years anyway.— athousandgods
"...unequivocally a false statement" says Amaro as his nose continued to grow!! Just tell us the truth Ruben!!— dogman5- It would be funny if the source was Werth. Jayson Stark isn't exactly the type of reporter to make a story up, or run with it if it's not credible.— sohagan28
- Doesn't matter if RAJ denies it publicly, there's no chance the Phils re-sign Werth. Boras's clients never take the early money.— paolibulldog
- If the Phillies give Werth a fair offer and he leaves I'll have no problem with it. To me fair would be right around market value. Maybe not as much as some teams would offer but to expect Jayson to take more then a slight discount to stay is expecting too much. We'll see in the end. Losing Werth will be a big blow any way you slice it. This team's offense is in decline and he was there best offensive player last year struggles with RISP aside. Never mind he also gives the Phillies things they have in short supply which is right handed power, patient at bats, and a high on base percentage.— brannigan73
If I'm RAJ, I'm doing my best to find someone dumb enough to pay half of Raul's salary in a trade so I can free up enough money to put a decent offer on the table. This team needs RH pop in the order in the worst way.— jpk- dogman5...you can't handle the TRUTH...— stan the man too
- Fair market deal would seem to be 4 years, $64 million or, if the cash per year is an issue, 3 years, $54 million with a club/player option for year 4.— jpk
- Hey Jayson; Do Philly a favor as tey captured when you were an inconsistent nothing! Don't let Borus sway you as he did TO in to a NO WIN situation and the only person who benefited ws Boras. Realioty is Jayson, playoffs, friends familiar playground and money no matter what. To a fan it is a win ..win..Amaro won't blittle you. Clear example Victorino vs Rowand. Yes Giants won but one year. Think about it— hrlevine
- hey hrlevine, Drew Rosenhaus was TO's agent, not Scott Boras. Although Scott is definitely in the Rosenhaus mold of agent.... NEXT QUESTION!
Comment removed.- "That did not come from me and I did not say that" ... well, obviously. The report never said it came from you, rather from a team source
- @hrlevine: May I suggest you proofread your stuff before you send it in? I THINK I got the gist of your statement, but the misspellings, ruptured syntax and questionable historical facts (Boras was NOT TO's agent!) completely negated your post.— TBear
- Realize that what most of what your hearing now is just rumor. Very dissapointed loosing Lopes. Davey did so much for running game which turned into Phills wins. I was in RA corner until this. If it was about the money coaches get little compared to even journey players. This is not meant as a slight to either Perlozzo or Samuel but it makes no sense, As a 3rd base coach your in a position for more criticisim than 1st base coach but Lopes may have been most valuable coach in game. Hope Werth scenerio is finished quickly and able team to find good righthanded bat if Jayson leaves.— Don w
- Whether it was said by someone in the Phillies FO or not, it's still true. He has zero chance of coming back, unless no one else offers him more than 4yr/64mil.
- Comment removed.
- While I appreciate Jayson Werth's work ethic and drive, I won't have a problem if he leaves. Werth, like many on the roster is an aging player who's best years may be behind him. Unfortunately, it is time for some very hard decisions to be made and those decisions will not make Mr. Amaro terribly popular. He needs some youth on the team and players who have at least five-to-seven years of good ball in them. Rollins, Utley and Ibanez probably won't have years as good as the ones we have seen, although Rollins and Utley will remain solid contributors. Sadly, signing Howard to such a lucrative long-term contract was probably not the best move for the Phillies.— Izzie
- hrlevine did you seriously just say Scott borus was the agent for TO? Do you even own a TV?— Phillyphan26
- 123 consecutive sellouts + 5 dollar ticket increase + no salary cap in baseball = no reason why Werth can't be resigned other than owner profit margins
- werth is a phool is he leaves the phils. his numbers in another park and another lineup wont be nearly as good. phils are phools if they offer more than 4 seasons.— djack10
- Comment removed.
- If I am Jason, I try to get someone to give me 6 years for $100mm, that obviously will not be the Phillies nore should it be, If no one bites, then maybe you can get him for 4yrs for $60mm.— JBP
- No on Felicano. I remember the days in 2007-8 when I would salivate when the Mets brought him in to try to nail down a lead against the Phils; even with a left-handed heavy hitting lineup, the Phils OWNED him. Him and Heilman. I used to LOVE it when they blew leads against us.— jrwoznicki
- The Phanatic can play right next year and this team is still winning the NL East. The focus now should be on the bullpen, wait till July to pickup someone fill in for the Phanatic if he doesn't work out.— RyanMcCormick
- @ Iron Giant: There is another reason - years. I don't think this is about money per year for the Phils and Werth as much as it's about RAJ not wanting to give him that amount of money over 6 or 7 years, which I happen to agree with. If he's willing to sign for like 16 million a year over 4 years, he'll be back and we'll know soon. Otherwise, he'll probably end up playing somewhere else on a 4 year, 5 at best contract. I like Werth, I just don't see him getting Matt Holliday's contract which is what I thinks Boras is hoping for.— kat20
- RyanMcCormick...i thought I had the copyright on the Phanatic in RF idea...— stan the man too
- The Phils usually move fast in the offseason to make moves so it doesn't surprise me that they want to get a solid indication about Werth's interest in coming back. In previous years we had traded for Billy Wagner and Brad Lidge by Thanksgiving (and Wade traded for Wagner). I definitely think we need to pursue McCucthen is he is available.— kwasi2323
- the phillies had a good run, now the demise...— seeker58
The Phils will offer Werth arbitration, which if he takes it, will likely provide Werth with a nice one year raise, but won't break the bank. Werth had a decent season, nothing more, and really does not have the career numbers to get what Boras seems to be telling him he will get. If Werth declines, the Phils get a #1 and a sandwich pick, which is great value for a guy they picked up off the MLB scrap heap. Any solid right handed outfielder will do for next year because Brown needs to play, so it will be a platoon situation for one season at least. Francouer, Nady, Ordonez (who is my first choice) should all be possibilities if Werth signs elswhere.- Phillies biggest problem's are two-fold: a)lack of a lead-off hitter and b) right-handed power. Not signing Werth is going to have far reaching consequences. Yes the middle bullpen needs help - but if they don't get the line-up improved there will be a lot of hand-wringing next season. Rollins and Ibanez are major concerns and until Dominick Brown proves he can hit the breaking ball he is this generations Jeff Stone - great physical presence.........but no-hit.— Northcountry
- Werth is way overrated. 85 RBI hitting fifth in that lineup? .139 RISP w/ 2 out? Can't hit w/ pressure. Never could. A good RH bat in the order, but won't be worth anyway near the $15 mil he'll get from Boston.— ejc527
- No matter how he shakes it, Philly is still his best fit. The park, the fans, the playoffs, the pitching staff, the lineup. Hope Borass allows him to do what he wants and not what Borass wants.— bossrjc
- Frankly I wouldn't sign any player to a contract that would be untradeable. Meaning, no more overpay to get a player. You have 2 current contracts that you couldn't dump if you wanted.(Howard and Ibanez)The Phils have to start acting like "This is the place to be".
They are consistantly one of the top five teams in baseball with a great park for hitters and a wonderful fan base.If you want a 6year contract than go to the Orioles or the Nats for example. Hell your the one that has to play there for 6 years.— batmann1 - dogman5 YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH.— Phillies08
- RAJ screwed Lopes out of a fair pay raise and we lost a great coach who literally gave us many more runs (that turned into wins) than we would have had without his insight, so what makes anyone think he'll offer Werth fair money? If RAJ really wanted to bring back Werth it would have been done by now. I'm still hoping to see Jayson back next year but I'm not holding my breath. I just think RAJ is going to low ball him and force him to walk.— Kanayd
- I personally think Jayson is going to pull off a Chan Ho Park and turn down the summer's reported 4 years @ $66 million and end up signing somewhere in late January for 4 years @ $48-$52 million.— jtj06
liar liar pants on fire, shame on you Mr. GM.- don't know how anyone will convince jason that 75 million is a no-win situation— SyddBarrett
- Phils need to take the gloves off and raise the ticket pricess a good 10+.
They will never have a sweet TV deal like the Yankees, so they need to start charging like the Red Sox due. The average ticket price for a game at Fenway is almost $20 a ticket more than Philly.
They can't continue being a top5 payroll in baseball if they don't start generatng revenues like the Red Sox & the Yankees.— Rod72 - I've said it before and I'll say it again. RAJ couldn't destroy this team faster with a sledgehammer. He inherited a world champion and they've retreated in each year he has been at the helm. His team is LH heavy and strike-out prone. His only power RH bat will leave and Rollins go back to hitting lead-off (and being one of the worst). Rollins to Victorino what Leno was to Conan. He will be known to have signed Moyer for 2 years when no one offered 1 year. Raul for 3 years when no one offered 2 years guaranteed. He increased Howard's number precisely as Howard looks like pitchers have him figured out. He trades away Lee for peanuts and obfuscates as to why. He trades for Doc because the Phils were the only team that Doc would accept a trade (ever wonder why the Angels stronger offer to the Blue Jays never materialized?). He botched Blanton's aribtration then gives him $24 million. He picked up Rollins' option a year early. He signed Baez. But yippee, we have Doc, Roy (nice add, but only to make up for a major oops) and Cole. Yet our offense can't play small ball and can't plate runs when it needs to, and goes into month-long slumps. Werth should go. He should find out where Cliff is headed and join him. Get ready for another 90+ win season and then a buzzsaw ending when crunch-time comes and they have to face a team with good pitching, particularly good southpaws. Doc, Roy and Cole have already shown us that they can lose games when the offense fires blanks. They are great but they can't defy reality.— bm2626
My cousin Shirley is left-handed and presently out of work.- Anyone notice why we just signed Juan Samuel? To coach outfield? To coach D-Brown? Forget about Werth. Brown is our next long-term superstar, barring injuries. Agree with person who said Phanatic could play RF with the team we'll have.— Sandy Sorlien
- I alwaysd liked Sammy as person and player, just thought his success was attributable to talent rather than knowledge of the game - I've always thought the gifted guy may or may not learn fundamentals, whereas the marginal guy has to explore every nuance of the game to succeed. That is useful to every man on the roster not just the handful of extraordinary athletes - a coaches true value.— robinlupe
- Bring back Gillick. The deal would get done with him!! Hey Jason show some loyalty!!— sawgrass
- Who cares about Werth? Sure, he was productive in the couple years leading up to his new contract but he also made a lot of boneheaded plays and probably cost the team as many wins as he gave them this year. Excepting the HR in SF and the throwout at 3rd he was virtually invisible in the postseason.
Werth is the type of player who, when saddled with a cushy long-term contract worth a hundred million dollars, will see his productivity dip and dip and dip. The Phillies don't need him, even if he is a righty.
The real disaster this year that will cost them a dozen games is the loss of Davey Lopes. What a bleep up! How much does it cost to bring that guy back? Stupid, stupid, stupid.— Crystal Ball - Nothing can be done. Werth will be able to get at least 5 years from somebody at $18 mil or so. And you can't blame him really. Because he spent so much time injured in LA, he's never had the really big paycheck. Even if he wants to stay in Philadelphia, would you sacrifice a couple of years guaranteed $18 mil to do it? That's a ton of money.— tomB
- It's all about compensation draft picks right now. Whomever the confidential source was doesn't really matter. Just because Stark identifies him (or her) as a "Phillies source" that doesn't mean it was anything more than opinion to start with - albeit opinion from a persin with a good knowledge of the team's inner workings.
Realistically, Werth is not coming back. We should ALL be okay with that. The Phillies need to start getting younger somewhere so this is as good a spot as any and the money they save from Werth helps develop talent that will hopefully be MLB-quality for 2015 and beyond. As for Werth, people talk a lot about how he should take less to stay with the team - but why? He may never get another shot at a great contract. If we are all truly appreciative of the years he gave us then we ought to also appreciate that one way of saying thank you is to acknowledge that he's like any other normal human. This chance might never come around again for him - he SHOULD grab the brass ring.— laferpurcell - ejc527 commentary is right on the money. 85 rbi's all season?! Howard missed games and had over 100; Ibanez had 83 rbi's! A good, steady ballplayer in right field, or a platoon system will produce that much and more. Remember, pitchers walked Howard to get to Werth.
- BM2626: You speak a lot of truth there. I drank Ruben Amaro's Kook-Aid he was serving up last Dec...Not drinking it now. 2008 : Won 4 WS games. 2009; won 2 WS games. 2010: No WS, won 2 NLCS games. Ruben Amaro Jr's stated goals after WS loss 2009 : "3rd Base, Bullpen, Bench." He was quiet that he still wanted Halladay. 3rd Base, Polly. Positive, thumbs up. Bullpen? Eyre, Condrey non-tendered, Park walks. Contreras, Herndon, Baez, Figueroa in. No reliable lefty Charlie has confidence in, glaringly obvious in NLCS. Negative for Bullpen, thumbs down. Bench? Non-tendered: Stairs, Bruntlett (who i miss?) In : Castro, Valdez, Schneider, Ransom, Gload. (Sweeney added mid-season) Valdez was Phils 2nd-most MVP of season. The rest?...a wash, Neutral, thumb level. The Halladay-Lee deal? Halladay gives hometown discount b/c has a home 15 min's from C-H20. Halfhearted attempt at negotiating to keep Lee. Lee who would have been a Phil for the bargain price of 9 MM thru 2010 dealt for 3 prospects who may or may not ever contribute. There was no guarantee that Lee was not going to accept an extension of some type beyond end of 2010 season. Dealing Lee meant that in July with Happ d/l-d, Blanton slow to mend, and then Moyer d/l-d, Amaro HAD to go after Oswalt. In getting Oswalt Amaro dealt away Happ, a reliable lefty w/ post season experience and young enough to stay and contribute in coming years. AND...if not dealt away could have been available for Charlie to use out of the pen in NLCS, when he trusted neither Romero nor Bastardo. Amaro : Albatross contracts (Moyer, Ibanez, Howard), deals which need 'do-overs,'(Lee/Oswalt), other questionable moves (non-tendering Eyre, signing Baez)... I'm tired of reading "Exec-of-year' praises for RAJ. Let's see how he bungles up this team this time around.
- ExiledinFla: You are a gentleman and a scholar. bm2626 - prescient (by the way, love the tag number). This team never needed Raul or Moyer yet those contracts proved to strangle this team at precisely the wrong time. Werth should have been extended for 3-4 years at what would have been no more than something like $7.5, 9.5, 10.5, 12.5, or $40 mil for 4 years (and probably woulda been a 3 year deal with a club/player option). He'd be playing out his final two years in 2011 and 2012 at a lower cost. That would have subsidized Lee's extension and kept Happ in the fold, to provide much needed cheap labor. And don't get me started about how we missed a huge opportunity to trade J-Roll and Raul last off-season to Boston when they were looking for OF depth and a SS - oh, and they were dangling Buchholz as trade-bait since they had 6 starters. Of course, Clay then had to go dominate this year so no chance of him ever being available again. But forgetting the missed Boston deal, this team should have had a rotation of Doc, Lee, Cole, Blanton and Happ, and a lineup of Vic, Polanco, Utley, Howard, Werth, Rollins, Francisco (who can play if they would just let him), Ruiz. And the payroll would have been no greater than it is now.— guru26
Only juiced-up Manny's Red Sox won more WS in the last decade. The Yankees make FA decisions that don't pan out, but they spend more money making those decisions. Please, we know they didn't win a WS in 09, or this year. I it's too early to bury RAJ, though. Maybe in another 3 years. How did everyone get so impatient? Are you the people who tailgate the cars in front of you on your daily commutes thinking the drivers will speed up?— road515- Oh, and if you are are so smart, why can't anyone read between the lines on Lopes. There were problems there. Remember Utley's knee leak to the press? Probably some ego things we don't know about. Just like all things with a TEAM...some things are beyond anyone's control. I hope the people in charge are smart, because change is going to happen. A couple timely hits last month, and the Phillies faults wouldn't be the end of the world.— road515
- Kudos to Amaro for ratcheting up the pressure. "Jayson, if you want to come back, we'd like to have you. But, don't think we're in this drama until February. We're not. We have holes in the bullpen and with right-handed hitting. Fortunately, we have young studs like Brown and Francisco in the fold. We have options. Enjoy losing 90 games a year with the Mets. Enjoy watching Beckett and Lackey getting lit up as overpaid, past-their-prime starters in Boston. Let's see how the New York and Boston media markets embrace a guy who hits a buck 85 with RISP. Ball's in your court, beard man."— eman
- Jayson Stark is too talented and has too good of a reputation and relationship with the Phillies organization to make that up. A Phillies source said that, take it to the bank. The only question is how close that source is to Amaro. Bottom line: Chance of signng Werth are slim— VicM
- hrlevin - I'm guessing you were under the influence of LSD? It's the only explanation I can come up with. TBear, if you got the gist of that you must be a genius.
- Not only should the Phillies re-sign Jason Werth, they should also pursue Cliff Lee, and try get Haap back! This is the time to be bold and put the team back where it can develop unapproachable depth! Reach down deep into your pockets Phillies, trust me, the money will come back to you ten fold!— boggie
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