Major League Baseball

2010 MLB PLAYOFFS;NLCS BEAT;A Werth-y stance;Phils OF mocks Yanks

Published Oct. 16, 2010 10:05 p.m. ET

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PHILADELPHIA - Jayson Werth plays all three outfield positions, led the National League in pitches per plate appearance, and averaged 29 homers and 84 RBI over the past three seasons.

But there is an even bigger reason he may be a free agent fit for the Red Sox. He already has some disdain for the Yankees.

Werth wouldn't admit it yesterday, not with his Philadelphia Phillies preparing to open the NL Championship Series tonight against the San Francisco Giants and the Yankees playing in the American League. But urban legend around Citizens Bank Park is that Werth grew his mangy hair and beard to defy the clean-shaven Yankees, who defeated the Phillies in the World Series.

Was that really the reason he went with the Geico Caveman look?

''Maybe,'' Werth said. ''But I'm not talking about that anymore.''

Truth is, Werth has been reluctant to discuss his grooming habits since he reported to spring training. But his stepfather, Dennis Werth, played 76 games for the Yankees from 1979-81, and Jayson is well aware of the team's longstanding policy against beards and mustaches.

So, he couldn't imagine a better way to remember the World Series defeat than by branding himself the anti-Yankee.

''I don't want to say that's the main reason why,'' Werth told the Philadelphia Inquirer last month. ''I usually grow a beard in the offseason, but there was a side of all that, on some level, it had something to do with it.''

Werth's teammates wouldn't bite on the hairy details - ''You'd have to ask him,'' center fielder Shane Victorino, one of Werth's close friends, said with a smirk - and his stepfather didn't return a phone call yesterday.

One thing is clear: Werth was stung by losing to the Yankees.

''After a parade in '08, to get all the way back there and then go home in '09, it was two definitely contrasting winters,'' Werth said. ''We know where we want to be when this thing's over. At the same time, I think the experience of last year is going to help us out. You just kind of look back and think about sitting at home last winter and not liking a whole lot where I was sitting.''

In 2006, Werth, 31, wondered if he'd ever play again. He missed the season with the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a wrist injury that never improved. He went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and saw Dr. Richard Berger, who performed surgery after diagnosing the injury as a split tear of the ulnotriquetral ligament, a condition that often exists in bowlers and golfers.

''I remember he texted me one day,'' Victorino recalled, ''and said, `I'm on my boat at home. I think I'm done. This wrist isn't getting any better.' ''

Werth signed a one-year contract with the Phillies in 2007, emerged as an everyday player in 2008 and signed a two-year, $10 million extension before the 2009 season. He stands to make far more on the open market. The Phillies' payroll is expected to reach $150 million even before they consider re-signing Werth, and prospect Domonic Brown is poised to take over in right field. Thus, Werth likely will be playing elsewhere next season, and the Red Sox may be in the market for a right-handed power hitter.

''There's too many unknowns and all that,'' Werth said. ''There's no sense in looking into the future or looking past Game 1, the first pitch. Whatever (the Phillies) want to do is up to them, but right now, we've got a great group of guys, a core group that's been together a while now. We know where we want to be when this thing's over.''

And, for Werth, it isn't seeing if he can grow a beard to spite the Yankees.

- slauber@bostonherald.com

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