What may be more surprising than the Nationals' acquisition of outfielder Jayson Werth may be the amount of money they gave him. The 7 year, $126 million dollar contract has stunned everyone around baseball, fans and General Manager's alike.
The most unlikely of skeptics of the deal is non other than the man who made the deal happen, Mike Rizzo. According to the Washington Post's Nats Journal, Rizzo explained why his team had to go above and beyond to lock up Werth:
"I think anyone is a little uncomfortable with giving anyone a seven-year deal," Rizzo said. "But we're in a position with the Washington Nationals at this place and this time that we have to do a little bit more than the championship-caliber, win-today teams. I think that it's kind of a two-fold process. Sometimes you have to give the years to get the player.
Soon after the deal was made, other GM's across the league began to react. According to ESPN New York, Mets GM Sandy Alderson expressed his thoughts on the deal:
"It makes some of our contracts look pretty good," Alderson said. "That's a long time and a lot of money. I thought they were trying to reduce the deficit in Washington."
That's probably not meant to be taken as a compliment.
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