Maybe Bryce Harper Was Onto Something

It was reported this afternoon that Jayson Werth has signed a 7 year, 126 million dollar contract with the Washington Nationals. Sure, most people will look at that contract and say "Wow, guess Werth doesn't care about winning," "He only cares about the money," or the ever popular "He sold out." But, as sports fans in the modern age of 24 hour-sports news cycles and athlete tweets, is it not time we stopped being surprised by these signings and just moved past the hate? Can you logically blame a guy for turning down a dump truck full of cash? It would be tough for you to turn down an offer of 250k a year to clean the shitty stalls of a run-down gas station, no? Well, Werth chose the high-pay shit work -- and more power to him.

Anyway, back in October, future Nationals superstar and all-around THIS Bryce Harper was quoted as saying:

I think in the next couple years we will be the Yankees of the NL East. I have been telling everyone that. We are going to roll. We are going to win some World Series'.

Then we all laughed and commended him on his exceptional sense of humor. But maybe The Chosen One is onto something. Maybe the Nats will make fools of all of us. Maybe they’ll sign Cliff Lee next week. Maybe all those high draft picks will blossom at the same time and propel them to championships. Or maybe this was simply a colossal waste of money. Time will tell I guess.

The bad news about this deal for the Phillies? Since the Phils offered Werth arbitration, they would receive the first round pick of the team that signed him. The Nationals hold the rights to the 6th overall pick - and unfortunately for the Phillies, that pick is protected. Instead, we'll have to settle for Nats' second round pick plus a compensatory pick.

All in all, no one really thought Werth was staying, so none of us should be too surprised.  Let it go and look forward to 2011, Phillies fans.