Steve Schaefer
The Deal That Wasn't There
By Steve Schaefer
Aug 19, 2006, 20:10

Soriano's still a Nat...at least until 15 days after the end of the World Series

How could this have happened? Since March it had been a foregone conclusion that the Nationals would trade Alfonso Soriano at the trading deadline, if not sooner. Soriano is a marquee talent, but he’s a free agent at year’s end and common thinking suggested that it would be better for Washington GM Jim Bowden to turn him into a few prospects now rather than lose him for nothing later. And yet, as the non-waiver trading deadline came and went, Soriano didn’t go with it. The biggest bat on the market was shockingly pulled off of it.

Varying reports had Soriano going anywhere from Detroit to Seattle to Minnesota to LA to Boston; there were even reports he was heading to the Marlins just befor the deadline. Unfortunately for fans of deadline deals (and the Nationals franchise), the Soriano talks ended up being more of a tease than Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions.

It's hard to imagine what Washington G.M. Jim Bowden was thinking. By a show of hands, how many of you thought that the Nats were going to keep Soriano? Anybody with their hand up right now is full of something that I can't mention in this context. NOBODY thought that Soriano would be playing in Washington on August 1st. Nobody. And for good reason. This winter Soriano is going to demand in the neighborhood of $15 million per year and a no-trade clause, and he will almost definitely get it (the man has 38 home runs, 29 steals, and 78 RBI playing for a last-place team).

Trouble is, Stan Kasten, head of the new Washington ownership group, is probably opposed to giving the first, and seemingly allergic to the second. Without both, Soriano is as good as gone.

For losing their stud leftfielder to free agency the Nationals will be awarded two compensatory draft picks in the first round of next June’s amateur draft. Two picks in the sandwich round (in between the first and second round of the draft when all the teams that lost marquee free agents get their compensation picks) are fine and dandy, but not sure things. The picks don't come with any guarantees that the players picked  will develop into bona-fide major leaguers. Even if they do, the odds of them ever becoming the equal of a Soriano are slim.

What I don’t understand is why Bowden demanded so much in trade discussions when it seemed like he was in a no-win situation. Why didn't he just suck it up and take the best deal he could get rather than spinning the ridiculous 'We're going to try to keep him around' story?

By all accounts several clubs were offering players on the cusp of the big-leagues for Soriano at the deadline. The Marlins have a slew of young pitching prospects (acquired in their winter fire sale) they were offering in the hopes of acquiring Soriano and then flipping him to another club for more young talent. The Tigers were offering a package including prized pitcher Humberto Sanchez who was the talk of the All-Star Futures Game. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim that reside in California but can’t decide on a name have a host of young players they could have offered (Erick Aybar, Brandon Wood, Ervin Santana). And yet Bowden didn’t pull the trigger with any of these clubs, or with any others that he had discussions with in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline.

And sure, things have happened since the deadline, but the fact is the biggest domino in this year’s deadline game didn’t fall (he has been placed on waivers and claimed by the Astros, but the chances of the two clubs working out a deal by Monday afternoon are doubtful at best). We already have one answer, this was indeed a boring deadline. All buildup, no release. All speculation, no action.

The question now is whether the axe is going to fall on Jim Bowden, the perpetrator who built up all the excitement and then had the audacity to not follow through by dealing his slugger. Thanks to his inaction, it looks like Washington baseball is well on its way to reverting to its old slogan (with one small tweak), "First in war, first in peace, last in the NL East."

Long story short, Alfonso Soriano is going to play out the string in Washington this year, remaining a Nat. At least until 15 days after the World Series ends. That's when players can file for free agency.




Swings and Misses

• I’m getting a little sick and tired of all the talking heads on television (notably Bill Plaschke on Around the Horn) saying that the Tigers are the favorites to win it all. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Tigers have had a magical season, but they will not win the World Series. Their young pitchers are already beyond their career highs in innings pitched so anything from this point on is hardly a sure thing. Kenny Rogers is allergic to the postseason (0-3, 8.85 in 9 starts). Their closer has an ERA near 5.00. I certainly believe that the Tigers can win a first-round playoff series. They're good enough to get by a team from the West, but I just don't see them getting past the Yankees or White Sox in the second round. If you're a Tigers fan, are you confident throwing Kenny Rogers out there in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Yankees? I wouldn't be.
  
• If you hear anyone say that the Red Sox should move Jonathan Papelbon out of the bullpen and into the rotation to save their struggling starters, you have my permission to smack them in the back of the head. That suggestion, most recently proposed in the usually trustworthy ‘Inside Baseball’ section of Sports Illustrated, is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard for reasons too numerous to mention here. There are two that I will discuss though. First, to consider lengthening a pitcher from a closer to a starter this late in the season is madness. It requires a total change in mound philosophy and would be a challenge for a grizzled veteran, let alone a rookie. Second, who will the Red Sox turn to as a closer if they move Papelbon into the rotation? I’ll ask you this, what was the one thing that the Red Sox had in their 2004 championship year that they didn’t have before or since? The answer is a sure-thing closer. They’ve got that this year and if they expect to make it deep in the playoffs (or to make the playoffs period at this rate) then Mike Timlin or Craig Hansen isn’t going to cut it at the end of ballgames.
• Speaking of the Red Sox, Denis Leary was in the booth during a broadcast of the Tigers-Boston game one night this week and he had a few interesting things to say about Kevin Youkilis and Mel Gibson.
• And now, the National League portion of the article...when the biggest story of the entire league is whether or not Paul Lo Duca is going to be in trouble for gambling and not whether or not any team in the league has a shot to win the World Series, something is wrong. The NL is basically Quadruple-A, and yes, the Mets are still the favorites.