Soriano Jockeys for Position

After Trade, Where Will Nats Play Him?

DALLAS, Dec. 8 -- The Washington Nationals arrived at baseball's winter meetings five days ago with a modest amount to spend on 2006 payroll, an acute need for starting pitching -- and no owner or clearly defined future. They left Thursday afternoon with significantly less payroll room, a star hitter who plays a position where they had no opening -- and, of course, still no owner.

How the acquisition of slugging second baseman Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers fits into the Nationals' uncertain future was on the minds of many of the baseball executives who departed Thursday into the frigid Texas afternoon.

"It's been 12 hours now" since the deal went down, one American League executive said Thursday, "and I'm still not quite sure what it means."

The trade -- which sent outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge, plus pitching prospect Armando Galarraga, to the Rangers -- remains unofficial pending Wilkerson's physical exam for the Rangers. Still, word spread rapidly through the hotel late Wednesday night, igniting a week that had been quiet for baseball in general, and for the Nationals specifically.

Soriano, 30, will be the highest-paid and highest-profile National next season, when the franchise must face the possibility of a drop-off in interest and attendance following the honeymoon season of 2005. But Soriano is also only one year away from free agency, and may be too expensive to keep beyond the 2006 season, even with new ownership presumably in place.

Still, while Soriano no doubt adds a unique injection of offense and speed to the Nationals' power-starved attack -- he has averaged 32 homers and 33 stolen bases in five seasons as a full-time player -- there are also plenty of reasons, financial as well as baseball reasons, why it would create more questions than answers about the Nationals' motives.

First, Soriano's favored position, second base, is already filled by veteran mainstay Jose Vidro, and Soriano, who is considered a below-average defensive second baseman, has resisted previous attempts to move him to the outfield -- as the Nationals say they plan to do. If anything, his resistance could grow even more fierce given his impending free agency and the fact slugging second basemen have more value than slugging corner outfielders.

"I'm going to play second base," Soriano told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Thursday. "I don't think they want me to play the outfield. I think that if they traded for me, it's to play second base. Obviously I have the control. Of course I'm not going to play the outfield."

One Rangers official defended Soriano, saying, "He is a good guy. He's certainly not a malcontent." But, he added, "They're going to have a big problem if they try to move him [to the outfield]."

Also, in taking on Soriano, a four-time all-star who is expected to earn around $10 million next season, the Nationals have spent a significant portion of the $7 million to $8 million in extra payroll space they were granted by Major League Baseball, which continues to own and operate the team as it seeks an owner. That leaves little money (and few marketable players) to use to acquire starting pitching, which team officials acknowledge they desperately need.

Another complication for the Nationals and Soriano: In a normal situation, this would be the time to try to sign Soriano to a long-term contract -- a full year before he could hit the free agent market. But that almost certainly won't occur until new ownership is in place, and only then if the winning group wants to keep Soriano.

Hanging over every transaction the Nationals make is the franchise's uncertain status, with Major League Baseball still acting as its owners and the D.C. Council still haggling with baseball officials about a lease for a new stadium. Fans have expressed frustration over having to pay increased ticket prices for a team that, before this week, had only lost players to free agency and looked as if it would struggle to match last year's 81-81 mark.