Nats financially rewarded for playoff performance

Come playoff time, major leaguers aren't thinking about money. They're thinking about the World Series. They're thinking about a ring. They're thinking about what they can do to help their team make a run deep into the postseason. With that, however, comes money. The further your team advances in the postseason, the larger a monetary pool your team will receive from Major League Baseball, which gives playoff teams a percentage of the gate receipts from the postseason action. The league announced the financial specifics of this year's payout today, and the Nationals were rewarded for their trip to the National League Division Series with a pool of over $2.12 million. The team divided that up into 49 full playoff shares, each worth $37,045.32. The Nats also gave 6.65 partial shares and three cash awards. For the higher-paid guys on the team, that amount isn't much. Jayson Werth won't be throwing a massive party to celebrate the check coming his way. But for the rookies and late-season call-ups, that 37 grand is a pretty nice bonus. Adding another level to the pain of the dramatic NLDS Game 5 loss, if the Nationals had hung on and advanced to the next round, they would have seen their full shares nearly quadruple. The Cardinals received $7.8 million for advancing to the National League Championship Series, meaning that the Nats missed out on somewhere around an extra $100,000 per full share. The World Series champion Giants received $377,002.64 a share, which is an MLB record.