Background and career
Jayson Richard Gowan Werth (born May 20, 1979) is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2002 to 2017. His 15-season career was split among the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, and the Washington Nationals. Born in Springfield, Illinois, Werth was a third-generation baseball player, as his great-grandfather and grandfather had both played professional baseball, as had his uncle and stepfather. His time catching for Glenwood High School led to an athletic scholarship to play college baseball with the Georgia Bulldogs, which he turned down after the Baltimore Orioles selected him in the 1997 MLB draft. Werth played in the Orioles' farm system until 2001, when he was traded to the Blue Jays as part of a package for John Bale. Werth made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays in 2002, and split time between the majors and minors until he was traded to the Dodgers in 2004. Werth's tenure with the Dodgers was marked by injury, including a torn ulnotriquetral ligament that kept him out for the entire 2006 season. That winter, he was signed by the Phillies as a free agent bench player. By the end of the 2008 season, however, Werth had become an everyday outfielder for Philadelphia, and he became the latest player in his family to win a World Series championship. The following year, Werth was named to the All-Star Game and appeared in his second consecutive World Series, where he set a franchise postseason record with nine home runs in one postseason run. He was less successful in 2010, however, and the Phillies were eliminated in the 2010 National League Championship Series by the San Francisco Giants. In December 2010, Werth joined the Nationals on a seven-year, $126 million contract. After his first season with the team was spent in a prolonged slump and his second was limited by a second injury to his left wrist, Werth returned in full in 2013 for one of the best seasons of his career, batting .318 with 25 home runs and 82 runs batted in. The last few seasons of his MLB career were mired in injury: he missed most of the 2015 season after acromioclavicular joint surgery and another wrist fracture, while he missed several months of the 2017 season with a hairline fracture in his foot. Werth signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners in 2018 and played in 36 games for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers, but after a stint on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, he elected to retire from baseball.
Jayson Richard Gowan Werth was born on May 20, 1979, in Springfield, Illinois, into an athletic family. His great-grandfather John Schofield was a shortstop whose foray into Major League Baseball (MLB) was cut short by a leg fracture. Schofield's son Ducky, Werth's grandfather, played in MLB from 1953 to 1971, and helped the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the 1960 World Series. Werth's uncle Dick Schofield was also an MLB shortstop for 14 seasons and won the 1993 World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays. While she did not play softball, Werth's mother Kim Schofield Werth was a track and field star who holds two national records, while his father Jeff Gowan was a former wide receiver for the Illinois State Redbirds football team and played for one season in the St. Louis Cardinals' farm system. Werth's parents separated shortly after he was born, and he had a limited relationship with his estranged father. In 1984 his mother married Dennis Werth, a first baseman for the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals, leading Werth to pick up a love of baseball via his stepfather. By the time he was 11, Werth would practice catching in his backyard, with his stepfather using a pitching machine to help Werth block balls. He began playing baseball competitively at the age of seven, and his youth team, the Springfield Flame, finished in third place at the 1993 Sandy Koufax World Series. Two years later, Werth was selected for the US team at the Junior Pan American Games. In his final season playing for Glenwood High School in Chatham, Illinois, Werth batted .652 with 15 home runs, 56 runs batted in (RBI) and 27 stolen bases.
The Baltimore Orioles, the only Major League Baseball (MLB) team to have two first-round selections in the 1997 MLB draft, selected Werth 22nd overall and Darnell McDonald 26th overall. Although he had previously committed to play college baseball for the Georgia Bulldogs on an athletic scholarship, Werth chose to forego his commitment in order to sign with the Orioles for a salary of around $850,000. Although he was immediately productive with the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League (GCL) Orioles, batting .309 with five RBI and a home run through his first 20 professional games, Werth also ran into health issues for the first time in his career, the Florida heat causing recurrent back spasms that sidelined him for half of what should have been his first 40 games. He ultimately appeared in 32 games for the GCL Orioles, batting .295 with one home run and eight RBI in 88 at bats. Werth began the 1998 season with the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds, with whom he collected three RBI through his first eight South Atlantic League games. Batting .311 with 20 RBI and 12 stolen bases through the end of May, Werth was one of four Shorebirds selected to attend the South Atlantic All-Star Game in June. In 120 games and 408 at bats for Delmarva, Werth batted .265 with eight home runs and 53 RBI. He also impressed behind the plate, helping to call games for his pitchers and successfully throwing out the only baserunner who attempted to steal on him. When the Shorebirds were eliminated from their respective playoffs on September 1, Werth joined the Double-A Bowie Baysox for the remainder of their season. He appeared in five games there, going 3-for-19 with one RBI. Leading into the 1999 Minor League Baseball season, Werth quelled rumors that the Orioles were interested in turning him from a catcher into an outfielder, saying, "I played outfield in two games in high school. I don't really know how to play outfield." Instead, he joined the Class A-Advanced Frederick Keys for the start of the season as a catcher. Shortly after participating in the Carolina League All-Star Game in July, Werth received a surprise promotion to Bowie: despite being told that he was likely to spend the entire season in Frederick, an injury to Chip Alley created a spot for Werth in Double-A. At the time, he had been batting .305 through 66 Carolina League games, with three home runs and 30 RBI in 236 at bats. After the promotion, he played an additional 35 games in Double-A, where he batted .373 with one home run and 11 RBI in 121 at bats. Werth was expected to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1999 Arizona Fall League, but suffered a fractured left wrist in Bowie and was replaced by Tim DeCinces. With veteran catcher Charles Johnson disillusioned with the Orioles over contract disputes during the 1999–2000 offseason, Baltimore began planning for his replacement in Werth. Rather than prematurely promoting him to Triple-A, farm system director Don Buford decided that Werth would begin the 2000 season in Bowie before making his MLB debut in 2001. Instead, after batting only .231 with 25 RBI in Double-A, he received a surprise demotion back to Frederick on August 9, while Mike Kinkade was promoted to Triple-A and Fernando Lumar took Werth's place in Double-A. Werth was more successful in Frederick, batting .277 with two home runs and 18 RBI in 83 at bats across 24 games.
On December 12, 2000, amidst a series of minor league trades, Werth was sent to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for left-handed pitcher John Bale. With his new team, Werth once again opened a season on the disabled list, this time with a foot injury. After 21 games with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League, during which he batted .200 with two home runs and 14 RBI, Werth was promoted to the Double-A Tennessee Smokies of the Southern League, where, after a successful July in which he batted .350 with 32 RBI, he was named the Topps Double-A Batter of the Month. He played a total of 104 games in Tennessee, batting .285 with 18 home runs and 69 RBI in 369 at bats. While he caught in most of the games he started, Werth also appeared as a first baseman for 28 games. When he was promoted to the Triple-A Syracuse SkyChiefs for the 2002 season, Werth was moved to the outfield, as Josh Phelps and Kevin Cash had already established themselves as Triple-A catchers. Although he had resisted the change with the Orioles, he accepted it now, both because Cash was "one of the best catchers I've ever seen" and because the outfield was less physically taxing, thus allowing Werth to prolong his career. Werth played in 127 International League games that season, catching in 26 and spending the rest of his time in the outfield. As a batter, he hit .257 with 18 home runs and 82 RBI in 443 at bats.
On September 1, 2002, Werth, who had been hitting .257 with 18 home runs and 82 RBI in Syracuse, was called up to the Blue Jays for his major league debut. He recorded a hit in his debut, a seventh-inning single off of David Wells of the New York Yankees. Although he packed a catcher's mitt upon his promotion to the majors, Werth's performance through his first 10 games with the Blue Jays, with multiple critical plays in right field, cemented his place as an outfielder. He played in 15 games at the end of the season, 10 in right field, four in left, and one in center. At the plate, Werth batted .261 with six RBI in 46 at bats. Although Toronto manager Carlos Tosca hoped that Werth would start Opening Day with the Blue Jays in 2003 as a backup outfielder for Frank Catalanotto and Vernon Wells, Werth suffered an injury to a ligament in his left wrist during spring training and had to undergo a rehab assignment with the Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays before rejoining the team. On April 14, he was promoted from Dunedin to the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, and he was back in Toronto on April 22. There, he and fellow rookie Orlando Hudson both hit three-run home runs, the first of Werth's career, in a 15–5 rout of the Texas Rangers on May 6. Werth spent most of the season alternating between the major and minor leagues depending on injuries to the Jays' core, but the midseason acquisition of outfielder Bobby Kielty, as well as the presence of rookie Reed Johnson, both made it more difficult for Werth to find a permanent place in Toronto. Werth played in 26 major league games in 2003, mostly in the outfield but with a few appearances as a designated hitter, and batted .208 with two home runs and 10 RBI in 48 at bats. He spent considerably more time in Syracuse, batting .237 with nine home runs and 34 RBI in 64 games and 236 at bats.
After completing spring training with the Blue Jays, Werth was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 31, 2004, in exchange for pitcher Jason Frasor. Werth almost immediately began the season on the disabled list after suffering a strained oblique muscle before the second game of the season. He spent nearly two months there before his activation on June 4. When he returned to the lineup, he made an immediate impact on the Dodgers' offensive performance, hitting a home run in his first game back before carrying a .450 batting average through the month of June. When Juan Encarnacion went on the disabled list with an inflamed shoulder at the start of July, Werth took his place as the everyday right fielder. There, his defensive abilities also attracted attention when Werth slammed into the outfield wall to catch an attempted home run from Jeromy Burnitz. He recovered from the hit and managed to turn a double play, holding the Colorado Rockies at two runs and allowing the Dodgers to eventually take the game 3–2 on a home run from David Ross. Werth played in 89 regular season games that year, batting .262 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI in 290 at bats. Most of these at bats came in the final two months of the season, when Werth was playing through a cracked rib. On October 2, his ninth-inning single set up Steve Finley's game-winning grand slam against the San Francisco Giants, a win that helped the team to clinch the National League (NL) West Division and send them to the playoffs for the first time since 1996. Despite two home runs and three RBI from Werth, the Dodgers lost the 2004 National League Division Series (NLDS) to the St. Louis Cardinals in four games. On the first day of spring training in 2005, Werth fractured the radius in his left wrist on a pitch from A. J. Burnett; while he hoped that he would be able to return from the disabled list by Opening Day, the Dodgers planned to use Ricky Ledee in Werth's place should his recovery need more time. Ledee received nearly two months of playing time in Werth's place, as Werth did not come off of the disabled list until May 26. He also spent time on the disabled list in August with bursitis in his left knee, and Werth did not feel as if he was able to truly begin the season until mid-August. Despite this additional setback, he was thankful for a second trip to the disabled list, as it afforded him more time to work on his hitting mechanics with coach Tim Wallach. Werth was able to play in 102 games with the Dodgers that year despite his injuries, batting .234 with seven home runs and 43 RBI in 337 at bats. Werth underwent multiple surgeries during the 2005–06 offseason to repair the injuries that had bothered him throughout the prior season. At the start of November, he underwent a minor surgery to remove the synovial bursa in his inflamed knee, and he was expected to recover in full by spring training. At the end of the month, however, he underwent a ligament repair surgery for his injured wrist, a procedure that came with an expected recovery time of five months and postponed his expected return to full health. By spring training, Werth was in more pain than he had been before the surgery, which his doctors initially believed was psychosomatic. Dodgers athletic trainer further believed that Werth had attempted to push his recovery time and had aggravated the scar tissue, causing it to inflame and induce further pain. At the end of May, he received a series of cortisone shots and his wrist was placed in a cast to limit further movement and alleviate some of the inflammation. That August, with still no improvement, Werth consulted with another doctor, Richard Berger of the Minnesota Mayo Clinic, who diagnosed him with a split tear of the ulnotriquetral ligament and performed an additional surgery to repair the wrist. He was put back in a cast for six weeks, with the anticipation that he would not play again until spring training in 2007. When asked by reporters for updates on Werth's condition, manager Grady Little initially responded, "Who?" After the season, the Dodgers declined to offer a contract to Werth for 2007, thereby releasing him into free agency in December.
