Still a contender, Werth recalls good times with Phils

VIERA, Fla. - The Phillies marched out the Four Aces in February 2011 while Jayson Werth moved into his new spring-training home with the Washington Nationals.

The Nats and Werth bore the brunt of a lot of baseball jokes at the time and one, in particular, was a cartoon conversation between two bears that circulated on YouTube. One bear played the part of Cliff Lee, who had just rejoined the Phillies as a free agent. The other was Werth, who had signed a seven-year deal for $126 million with the Nationals.

The slow-talking Lee bear spent the entire video harassing Werth for signing with the Nationals, saying things like, "What are you going to do for the next seven Octobers now that you have signed with Washington?"

Werth, of course, could have laughed all the way to the bank regardless of what happened after he signed with the Nationals, but he is obviously also getting the last laugh. The Nationals have gone 360-287 in his four seasons and won two National League East titles. Las Vegas has them as the favorites to win this year's World Series. He has three years and $63 million left on his contract.

As for the Phillies, well, you know that sad story.

Funny thing is, Werth has no desire to dance on the grave of his former team. In fact, he is somewhat saddened by the Phillies' demise.

"I saw the Jimmy [Rollins] interview when he left," Werth said after the Nationals' workout Sunday. "He talked about that 2011 team when they brought Cliff back and the mentality they had. We had it in 2010 and we had it in [2009]. It was a no-frills type of attitude that we had there in Philly. When he said that, it made me smile because those teams were awesome and we were so good because of the way we went about it. Looking back, it's a shame because you think about what could have been if those teams kept going."

Rollins also said in the interview with Comcast SportsNet that Werth's departure triggered the Phillies' decline.

"When he left, he left a big hole there - not only on the field, but just [with] the chemistry of that team," Rollins said.

The Nationals, who had the good fortune of getting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper with the first overall picks in 2009 and 2010, craved a similar chemistry to the one in Philadelphia and general manager Mike Rizzo decided Werth was the right man to create it. In essence, he wanted Werth to do for the Nationals what Jim Thome had done for the Phillies after signing with the team in December 2002.

Just as the Phillies had done with Thome, the Nationals spent way more than any other team was willing to offer Werth, but so far the 35-year-old outfielder has been a worthwhile investment.

"He has at least lived up to and probably exceeded what I thought he would give us," Rizzo said. "There are a lot of tangible things he has done. Just the way we handle our business. The way the team travels. From pregame work to video work to in-game stuff, he has his fingerprints all over that."

What Werth wants his fingerprints all over is another World Series trophy and he knows this season might be his best chance for that to happen. There is some delicious irony in the fact that he is now part of a team that has its own kingdom of aces.

With the free-agent addition of Max Scherzer in the offseason, the Nationals have six starters on their roster who were a combined 87-47 with a 2.97 ERA last season.

"When I got here we were at the bottom and we kind of built this thing to the top," Werth said. "Now the trick is staying here as long as we can. We talk about it a lot in here. We talk about having a window and the window opens and then it usually slams shut, as you've witnessed [with the Phillies].

"I think Jimmy had a quote about the 2011 Phillies that he said the mentality was, 'Who's next?' We started to get that a little bit at the end of last year and this is the year I see us taking that grinding element of it from day one."

Werth is going to have to grind just to get to the starting gate on time. He had surgery on his right shoulder Jan. 9 and is not yet able to do baseball activities. The early portion of his rehab work was performed in between a five-day jail sentence he served over two weekends in Virginia. He pleaded guilty after being stopped in July for driving 105 m.p.h. in a 55-m.p.h. zone.

"It's a time in my life that I'm glad it's behind me," he told the Washington Post last month. He said Sunday that he does not want to talk about it anymore.

Werth did, however, offer an unsolicited olive branch to Phillies fans, many of whom have detested him for some things he has said and done since leaving Philadelphia.

"I know when I'm done playing my time in Philly is going to mean an awful lot to my career," he said. "I don't want to say anything to taint that, although I guess when I came over here things got taken out of context. [Washington Post columnist] Thomas Boswell wrote some things I said, but it was said in a joking manner. I think the quote was, 'I hate the Phillies, too.' It was a ha-ha. He left that part out and it was probably taken the wrong way.

"Hopefully that is water under the bridge now and as time goes on it's not a big deal because that time I was there, it might have been the most special time in Philly sports history. Those teams and those guys, that was just awesome. I know when my career is over and I look back, that will be a very, very important time in my career."

In the meantime, he has unfinished business with the Nationals and he believes this is the year that the quest for Washington's first World Series title since 1924 can come to fruition.

Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Ruiz, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth were considered core players during the Phillies' run of five straight National League East titles. Werth was the first to leave after the 2010 season, with Victorino following in 2012 and Rollins after last season.

Here's a look at how those six players have performed since Werth joined the Washington Nationals in 2011:

Player   G   AB   R   H   2B   3B   HR   RBI   AVG.   OBP.   SLG.   OPS

Jayson Werth   507   1857   280   523   108   5   66   253   .282   .375   .452   .826

Chase Utley   472   1764   249   474   97   20   51   236   .269   .347   .433   .780

Carlos Ruiz   448   1473   178   416   96   1   33   176   .282   .360   .416   .776

Shane Victorino   438   1714   263   470   88   26   45   189   .274   .338   .435   .773

Ryan Howard   456   1672   208   401   79   4   81   310   .240   .321   .437   .759

Jimmy Rollins   596   2337   332   592   113   13   62   225   .253   .323   .392   .716

Source: BaseballReference.com - Bob Brookover

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