Alfonso Soriano (2b/LF), WAS - Alert: HI
July 31, 2006
News: While there were a handful of big moves made in the last few minutes before the non-waiver trade deadline, the biggest name on the market was not involved in any of them. Soriano, currently batting .286 with 32 homers, 64 RBI, and 26 steals, will remain in Washington until at least the end of the season. Washington GM Jim Bowden claimed that out of the more than twenty teams that offered up for Soriano, none of them offered enough.
Views: Did the Nats make the right move here? A lot depends on whether they can, indeed, re-sign Soriano at the end of the year. Soriano has been claiming for over a month now that he'd like to remain in Washington and sign an extension, but wouldn't be likely to re-sign with the Nats if they traded him, as he'd feel like they didn't really want him. Should Washington lose Soriano to free agency, they would receive a first round pick and a sandwich pick between the first and second rounds in exchange for losing him.
Should the Nats be able to re-sign Soriano, Bowden may have made the right move (though it's really hard to tell without any concrete evidence of the particulars surrounding some of the offers Bowden received) here. Soriano has emerged into a fan favorite in Washington who puts butts in the seats, as well as the unquestioned leader in the clubhouse. Despite his reservations about switching to left field before the season, his speed makes up for some of the bad reads that he makes in the outfield and he leads the league in outfield assists. Given that he's continued to show that he's one of the top ten offensive forces in the majors even in RFK, keeping Soriano means that they still have a franchise player who is flat in the middle of his prime.
Should the club lose Soriano to free agency, Bowden should be tied to a pole and forced to endure fastball after fastball to the face. Draft picks (even first-rounders) are far from guaranteed, while most of the offers that were said to have been on the table would have given the club at least two players with professional experience who would have made an impact. Losing Soriano to free agency for a couple of draft picks means that the Nats would be highly unlikely to receive anything near the guarantee of future performance that even the worst offer that Bowden received offered.
If Kasten and Bowden do not find a way to lock Soriano up long-term in the coming months, expect to be seeing a few "Fire Jim Bowden" websites in the near future.
Fantasy Baseball 
