Washington Nationals: Opening Day 2017 Roster Projection

LF Jayson Werth

Werth is another one of those hitters that Dusty Baker can put anywhere in the batting order for the Washington Nationals. Yes, he’s in the twilight of his career, but the Nats left fielder still brings value to the team.

Last season, he was one of the best hitters on the team at taking pitches and making the pitcher work. His 4.6 pitches per plate appearance was the most on the Washington Nationals and the most in all of baseball according to ESPN (Mike Napoli was second – 4.57).

If Baker wants to separate Turner and Eaton at the top of the order, Werth is a good player to put in the number two spot because he works the count and he can hit the ball to the right side and move the runner over.

While he only hit .259 in 94 games out of the number two spot last season, Werth did a good job of drawing walks. His 57 walks were the most of any number two hitter in the NL and the third most in all of baseball (Jason Kipnis and Josh Donaldson were the only players with more).

Last spring training, Werth did appear in 16 games, so that would be the number I would expect him to be at this spring because the Nats will want to be careful with how much they use both him and Ryan Zimmerman.

Heading into his age 38 season, Werth can still bring power to the plate and has a good eye for pitches. That makes his role extremely valuable, regardless of how he does this spring training.