Jayson Richard Gowan Werth (born May 20, 1979) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Philadelphia Phillies. He bats and throws right-handed. While primarily a right fielder throughout his career, Werth has recently been moved to left field for the Nationals.

Werth was born in Springfield, Illinois, the son of Jeff Gowan, a collegiate baseball and football player who broke all the receiving records and led all Division I wide receivers in receptions while at Illinois State University, and played outfield in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system in 1978 and Kim Schofield Werth, who competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in the long jump and 100 meters. He is the grandson of Ducky Schofield and nephew of Dick Schofield, both Major League Baseball infielders, and stepson of Dennis Werth, who played in parts of four seasons with the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees from 1979 through 1982. Werth is married with two children.

Werth was successful as a youngster, playing for the top youth traveling teams in Springfield, Illinois. His teams began traveling when he was seven and dominated the state of Illinois youth baseball with four consecutive state championships (never finishing worse than fourth in nationals) in Khoury League with the Bunn Brewers. He then played for a national power, the Springfield Flame, where his team won the state and Midwest Regional and finished third in the 1993 Sandy Koufax World Series in Spring, Texas behind Pico Rivera, California and a Dallas, Texas team that included future major leaguer Vernon Wells. Werth also was selected to play for the U.S. Junior Pan Am Games in 1995. He gained more attention while attending Glenwood High School in Chatham, Illinois, where he compiled a .616 batting average in his senior year with 15 home runs in 31 games and helped his team to the state championship in 1996 (his junior year).

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