By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Jayson Werth's legacy in Philadelphia will probably never represent how good he was in his four seasons with the Phillies. In the first four years of the greatest run in franchise history, Werth hit 95 home runs, drove in 300 runs and posted an average WAR of 4.5 per season. And in an organization that's featured Mike Schmidt, Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, Werth became the franchise's all-time leader in playoff home runs.
Werth left the Phillies after the 2010 season, signing a seven-year/$126 million deal with the Washington Nationals, that he's now entering the final season of. In a piece by Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Werth suggested that winning was his primary reason for heading to Washington:
"My focus was on winning, but at the time that's not really what it looked like," Werth said Saturday afternoon. "Everybody was like, 'The Nats were crazy, Werth is money hungry' and whatever else was said. Honestly, I was in a position to pick and choose what I wanted to do. What I thought was cool about the Nats was that it was a total underdog situation, but they had good owners . . . and a core group of players with a high ceiling. It was a situation where I thought we could build something."
Even as the internet's biggest Werth defender, it feels disingenuous for Werth to act as though money wasn't the biggest motivating factor in him leaving the Phillies in the midst of their greatest run in franchise history. In fact, he apparently told Ed Condran of Philly Voice and others during the 2010 season that he wasn't going to miss out on his chance to get paid:
In August of 2010, he told me what was up next for him. “I get to sign one big contract in my career and it’s not going to be here,” Werth revealed.
During the final presser of his illustrious Phillies career, Werth chastised a beat reporter he loathed for asking too many questions during his exit interview, among many other reasons. “I won’t have to see him much anymore,” Werth said afterward.
That's not to say that Werth couldn't have also looked at the situation in Washington and realized that perhaps the team would contend during his tenure. But the Phillies had been to the playoffs in four consecutive seasons, played in the NLCS three consecutive seasons, been to the World Series two times and won one World Series title. Finding a way to stay in Philadelphia, at that time, seemed like the best way to assure contention.
Of course, the hole in the logic of being mad at Werth for leaving is that the Phillies didn't seem particularly interested in retaining him. Ruben Amaro suggested prior to the 2010 season that the team couldn't have a $10 million player at every position. The Phillies didn't seem to come close to competing with the seven-year/$126 million deal that he ultimately signed with the Nationals, which seemed to make sense when the belief was that the team couldn't afford to sign another $100 million plus deal. Then, eight days later, the team agreed to a $120 million deal with Cliff Lee that was two years shorter than the deal Werth ultimately signed. The organization also spent $10 million upgrading their left field scoreboard that offseason.
In the end, Werth left Philadelphia because the team didn't offer him a seven-year/$126 million deal. Had the Phillies offered that deal, or even come close, he probably would still be in Philadelphia and considered a franchise icon, rather than one of the bigger enemies of the fanbase. In Washington, he's been part of some iconic moments and gotten his chance to get paid, which was probably as good of a scenario as he could have imagined in 2010.
