say, the rest of this year he's average or worse and there are 2 years left at 21m per.

The team's turn around may have had more to do lucking into stras and harper, and not resigning the willingham and dunns of the world, than signing werth. productive deals for ramos, span, gio, fister, could all have been done without werth around. His WAR will have only reached prime-Phillies levels 2 out of five years - which is pretty much what everyone would have guessed in a post-roids world. And the 7th year of the contract which was the most criticized aspect of the deal doesnt project to be pretty, especially with the move to left and his defensive value being diminished.

But his leadership in the clubhouse has been stressed repeatedly and i tend to think that rizzo had to go big at the time (its interesting to imagine what would be different had Rizzo landed other big fish like Greinke, teixeira or fielder). I can't make a data driven argument for werth on the field, but as a fan i still think he kinda jump started the new era in DC.

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"To face that guy twice a year is going to be a headache. He takes away from your enthusiasm for the game a little bit." Justin Tuck on (rookie-year) RG3