Washington National’s left fielder Jayson Werth was born in Springfield on May 20, 1979. His father was a former professional baseball player and his mother competed in the U.S. Olympic trials in the long jump.

Werth’s successful youth career began with winning three consecutive state championships and placing third in the nation in the 1993 Sandy Koufax World Series. He followed this with an astounding career at Glenwood High School where he posted a .652 batting average and 15 home runs in his senior year.

Instead of playing collegiately, Werth was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the 1997 Major League Baseball draft. He remained in the minor leagues for 5 years and was eventually traded to the Toronto Blue Jays where he made his Major League debut in 2002. The following year he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers where he played another season, and then traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2007.

Ultimately flourishing with the Phillies, Werth won a World Series with the team in 2008 and was voted the “Unsung Star of the Year” in 2009. His tenure with the Phillies ended when he signed with the Washington Nationals in 2010 for $126 million. Though he has yet to win a world series with the Nationals, Werth is still putting up numbers worthy of his contract. Werth holds a career .274 batting average, 186 home runs and over 1,200 hits.

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View Werth’s Washington Nationals bio