Update (3/10/11): See another feature on Jayson, including an interview with Dr. Berger, in today’s Washington Post.
Today’s New York Times has an extended feature on Washington Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth and his comeback from a career-threatening wrist injury. Here’s an excerpt:
VIERA, Fla. — The drive from Rochester, Minn., to Springfield, Ill., should take about seven hours by car. But it goes a lot faster when you fly, as Jayson Werth discovered in December 2006.
That summer, a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester located the source of the wrist problem that cost Werth most of two seasons and threatened to end his career. That December day, somewhere in Iowa, Werth learned that he had passed his follow-up exam and that the Philadelphia Phillies had completed his one-year, $850,000 contract….
The years since have been so successful that Werth is now starting a seven-year, $126 million contract with the Washington Nationals, blowing a hole through the lineup of the Phillies, the four-time defending National League East champions. Werth’s $18 million annual average is roughly 21 times his 2007 salary, which he will earn every eight games.
See the New York Times site for the rest of the story. Below you can hear Jayson describe his experience with the injury and at Mayo Clinic, from an interview recorded in 2009 when he was with the Phillies:
See more background on Sharing Mayo Clinic, and how a Twitter chat with Dr. Richard Berger related to another story about Jayson led to a young woman from Washington, D.C. getting successful surgery for her chronic wrist pain.
