Can Werth keep it going in seventh and final year of contract?

As we transition into offseason mode here, we're reviewing each significant player on the Nationals roster. We continue today with Jayson Werth, who despite a slow start managed to put together another solid season even as the outfielder approaches the twilight of his career.

PLAYER REVIEW: JAYSON WERTH

Age on opening day 2017: 37

How acquired: Signed as free agent, December 2010

MLB service time: 13 years, 102 days

2016 salary: $21 million

Contract status: Signed for $21 million in 2017, free agent in 2018

2016 stats: 143 G, 606 PA, 525 AB, 84 R, 128 H, 28 2B, 0 3B, 21 HR, 69 RBI, 5 SB, 1 CS, 71 BB, 139 SO, .244 AVG, .335 OBP, .417 SLG, .752 OPS, 0.3 WAR

Quotable: "At the start of the year, I tried to be more aggressive. And everybody that's anybody always told me: 'You need to be more aggressive. You need to swing at the first pitch. You need to do this. You need to do that.' That's just not really been my game. But for whatever reason, I thought this was the year I was going to do that. And I think I've silenced all those people that have told me over the years that that's the way I should hit. Just getting back to being myself, I think that's what it comes down to." - Jayson Werth

2016 analysis: It seems like every spring people wonder if the end is near for Jayson Werth, and by season's end the ageless outfielder proves the doubters wrong. So it was again in 2016, with Werth facing serious questions about his ability to remain a productive everyday player early on and then putting to rest those concerns with yet another strong year.

The key this time may have been his spot in the batting order. Dusty Baker initially had Werth batting fifth or sixth, tasked with driving in runs. But in mid-May, his batting average sat at .198, his on-base percentage at .258. Then Baker moved Werth up to the No. 2 spot, moving the equally struggling Anthony Rendon down to the middle of the order. The change paid off immediate dividends.

Over his next 74 games, Werth (thinking more like a table-setter than a run-producer) hit .277 with a .379 on-base percentage and .836 OPS. Never was he better at that than during a prolonged stretch from late-June through mid-August when he reached base in 46 consecutive games, the longest such streak in club history and matching Rusty Staub's franchise record.

Werth also had a strong postseason, hitting .389 (7-for-18) with a .522 on-base percentage, though a pair of strikeouts with a man on third and one out in Game 5 of the National League Division Series did prove costly to the Nationals.

2017 outlook: It's hard to fathom, but the final year of Werth's seven-year, $126 million contract has finally arrived. What many around baseball deemed a terrible overpay by the Nationals way back at the 2010 Winter Meetings has proven to be a worthwhile deal for a franchise that desperately needed to acquire a free agent of Werth's stature to show the rest of the sport it was truly serious about winning.

Plenty of observers (including the Nats themselves) were concerned Werth would be a shell of his peak self by the time the final two years of the contract arrived. That wasn't the case in year six, and while it's certainly possible it could happen in year seven, at this point there's still ample reason to believe Werth has at least one more productive season in him.

Werth will need to work extra hard to keep his body in one piece - though it remains worth noting that nearly every injury he's sustained in his career has been the result of a freak incident, not muscle tears or aching backs, etc. - and he may have to acknowledge he needs a few more regular days off during a 162-game season.

But if he can continue to embrace who he is (a grind-it-out batsman who is at his best when he's simply trying to reach base instead of trying to drive the ball out of the park) and avoid major injuries, there's no reason Werth can't put together one more strong campaign for the franchise he helped reshape, perhaps finishing off his time in D.C. by leading this team somewhere it has never been before.