Jayson Werth: "I never thought we'd end up here"

After a win over the Diamondbacks on August 4, the Nationals stood a game behind the first-place Mets in the National League East. Jayson Werth uttered the words that shot up I-95 to the Big Apple: "It's our division to lose."

Tonight, the Mets clinched the division, thus eliminating the Nats from the playoffs.

About 30 minutes after the Nationals finished celebrating a walk-off 2-1 win over the Phillies, Werth hobbled into the clubhouse from the trainer's room. With an enormous ice pack wrapped around his left shin, the 13-year-veteran eased down into a chair in front of his locker as the realization of his proclamation not playing out set in.

"It's tough," Werth said. "It's tough to play when you really don't have anything to play for. It's unfortunate. I've been playing this game a long time and every year your goal is to win a World Series, so obviously when that is finally realized that that's not the case, it's tough. A lot of hard work. A lot of time spent working toward the goal. And when it's over, it sucks."

Werth was one of the Nats' numerous injury casualties this season. His year started late after AC joint surgery on his right shoulder in January. Werth struggled through the first 27 games, batting just .208, while still nursing his recovering shoulder.

Then a runaway fastball crashed into his left wrist in San Diego on May 17. It was the third time Werth fractured the wrist in his career. The unlucky injury robbed the grizzled veteran of the next 61 games.

Werth scuffled through the first 19 games when he returned from the DL, hitting only .145, while the Nats lost hold of the division lead over a 5-14 slump.

But over the last 36 games, Werth regained his health and timing. He emerged as one of the Nats' most effective hitters down the stretch, batting .277 with nine homers, one triple, 11 doubles, 24 RBIs and 27 runs scored.

After the game, Werth was asked if he feels this is a season of "what ifs" with all the untimely injuries suffered.

"Not at the moment," Werth said. "I still believe in these guys and this team. I'm more surprised than anything else, I think. I never thought we'd end up here. Obviously, we've underachieved. We haven't played well. We've done a lot of things that got us here. But I would've never guess that. I would've never thought we'd be sitting here having this conversation with seven or eight games left. Would've bet the other way."

Werth wasn't fully ready to start dissecting the main issues for the Nats that leaves them on the outside looking in for the playoffs this October.

"I haven't really been able to think about all that," Werth said. "Off the top of my head, you can look at a lot of things, I would say injuries definitely played a part. There's a lot of things you can point at. But there's a lot of positives, too. We got a chance to see Mikey Taylor play all year, see the type of player he can potentially be. Lose a guy like Denard (Span) for basically the whole season, you wonder how you replace somebody like that. Then you see Mikey and how he's played. He's got a chance to be a pretty good big league player. There's that.

"The other guys did great, too. Clint (Robinson), (Tyler Moore) and those guys that filled in. So there's some positives, but all in all, as time goes on, we'll look back on 2015 and I think overall it will be a disappointment."

Werth has spent the last five seasons in Washington after inking a blockbuster deal, which helped establish the Nationals as true contenders in the NL East. When he arrived, veterans Ian Desmond and Jordan Zimmermann - two Nats draftees - were already here. Both players, along with Span and Doug Fister are set to become free agents and expected to sign elsewhere this offseason. It's something that Werth was focused on all year.

"I think I said that in February that this could be the last run of this core group of guys," Werth said. "It's got a chance to be drastically different next year, so that's tough. This is my fifth year here. Played with these guys, get to know these guys, go to work with these guys every year, you're basically family. So it's unfortunate. It sucks. You wanna win. You wanna keep playing. You wanna be the last team standing. When that's not the case, it's no good."