Jayson Werth recently cleaned out his Philadelphia Phillies locker after the team’s NLCS defeat at the hands of the San Francisco Giants.
As you’d expect, that was far from a fun moment for the Phillies outfielder, and it was one full of uncertainty for the future.
“It’s depressing, disappointing, all the things you can probably [imagine],” Werth told WIP. “I’m sure this was tough for everybody in the city to swallow, not only just for us, but I know everyone had high hopes this year and we were right there. We went through a lot, we got to where we needed to be. Obviously everyone saw it going differently and it’s been a weird couple days, I’ll definitely admit to that.”
His future is on the minds of many — not just his own. His teammates even have predicted that he won’t be back.
As arguably the second-best position player on the market after Carl Crawford, Werth will surely be sought after by just about every team. The Red Sox and Angels are expected to be interested and rumor has it that the Cubs will be in the running too.
Somewhat surprisingly, the notion that the New York Yankees will go after Werth has come to rise. The rationale behind such is that the team will try to move Nick Swisher, who will have value after his strong regular season.
Werth has made one thing clear: He wants to play for a contender.
“It’s definitely important to me. I’m a guy who, I won a state title when I was in high school, I won a World Series, my summer league team won a World Series one summer when I was 16. I hate losing. I love to win. I don’t think there’s anything more important to me than winning. Going forward, winning will be high up there on the top of the list,” he said.
Despite his appreciation of playing in Philadelphia, he remains totally undecided about his future.
“It’s too early to say,” he explained. “We’ll wait and once the World Series is over, then we get a chance to hear what the Phillies have to say and where they’re coming from and what they’re thinking. We’ll have a better idea of what our chances are.
“Right now, I’m optimistic, I’m open-minded, I’m hopeful,” added Werth. “I said this earlier, there’s not another place out there where I’ll get a chance to play with guys that I’ve gone to war with the last four seasons and accomplished what we’ve accomplished and been through what we’ve been through. The chemistry of our clubhouse is obviously something that people talk about. It’s well-known that we all get along very well and play really good together. The formula works … We’re entering into some unknown territory for me here.”
