You don’t normally expect there to be much breaking baseball news on a British Sunday evening.  I innocently logged on to my computer with the intention of having a quick check on the latest rumours at around 10 p.m., only to spend the next hour or so clicking from website to website and tweet to tweet chasing all the stories and the immediate reaction to the news.

Every offseason move turns into a drama, but the Washington Nationals’ signing of Jayson Werth was one case where the ‘major event’ billing was fully justified.  It was genuinely stunning, leaving me doubting my eyes, even my sanity, for a few seconds as the news sunk in. 

Part of the shock was that it was completely unexpected.  That’s almost unheard of nowadays, as even the most banal developments and vague hints of potential interest are blogged and tweeted about on a non-stop basis.  That will become even more prevalent over the next few days during the MLB Winter Meetings.  You normally have some inkling that a deal is being discussed, followed by a flurry of activity just before the signing is officially announced.

In Werth’s case, I didn’t read a single story seriously linking the outfielder with the Nationals prior to last night.  There were rumours that the Tigers could have enough money left to pair him in the batting lineup with new recruit Victor Martinez, while some were planning out a potential Red Sox lineup including the former Philly and Adrian Gonzalez (more on him in a moment).  Continue reading →