Soriano, Nats Appear Headed for Second Go-Round

By Dave Sheinin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 20, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- When second baseman Alfonso Soriano departed the Washington Nationals' spring training camp on March 2 to join the Dominican Republic team for the World Baseball Classic, he left with a seven-word message that was less a threat than a statement of optimism: "They have three weeks to fix it." On Saturday, after his team was eliminated in the WBC semifinals, Soriano walked out of Petco Park to begin the journey back to Viera, Fla., and if he did not know already, he will find out when he arrives: The Nationals did not fix it.

Soriano's return to the Nationals' camp, expected to be as early as Monday, will refocus attention on the divisive, perplexing issue that has dominated the team's spring, even in Soriano's absence: how to resolve the matter of Soriano's refusal to accept the proposed switch from second base to left field. It is an issue for which there is no easy fix.

More so than when Soriano departed, there is now a sense that the dispute will be settled by the means all parties had hoped to avoid: with the Nationals, who have explored trade possibilities to no avail, insisting firmly that Soriano must play left field, and with Soriano deciding upon the critical next move.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Soriano said as he left Saturday. "I have to go back to Florida and see."

The Nationals' immediate plan upon Soriano's return is for Manager Frank Robinson -- who, despite the unease, formed a bond with the player before the WBC began -- sitting down for a one-on-one conversation with Soriano, in which Robinson plans to reiterate the team's plan for him to play the outfield.

"I think that [reiteration] has to be part of the conversation," Robinson said.

Behind his designer sunglasses, Soriano's eyes on Saturday betrayed worry, as even his 2 1/2 -week respite from the Nationals' mess stripped away another piece of the identity he had built for himself during a five-year major league career.

He began the tournament as the Dominicans' starting second baseman, but after struggling at the plate and in the field during the first three games of the WBC, he was benched for the remainder of the tournament. In the ninth inning against Cuba on Saturday, he struck out as a pinch hitter to send the team packing.

Before Dec. 7, Soriano's position in the game had been secure: He was the Texas Rangers' second baseman, a three-time all-star and one of the most revered players in his country. But on that day, the Rangers traded him to the Nationals for outfielder Brad Wilkerson and two other players, and his professional life seemingly has yet to recover.

Traded to a new league, Soriano goes from an extreme hitter's park (Ameriquest Field) to an extreme pitcher's park (RFK Stadium) and is being asked to change positions in his final year before reaching free agency. The benching during the WBC was only the latest indignity.

In addition to asking how the messy situation will be resolved, people inside and outside the Nationals' organization have asked how it could have been allowed to happen in the first place, when Soriano's resistance to moving to the outfield was well known around the game.

A Trade Minus the Talk

On the afternoon of Dec. 7, as baseball's annual winter meetings were winding down in Dallas, the Nationals were itching to make a big move. Flush with cash from their new, expanded payroll budget, the team's brain trust had made unsuccessful runs at a couple of high-priced pitchers, but on the last full day of the meetings, they were considering a proposal for what would be a blockbuster trade.

The Rangers had offered Soriano, an exciting player with a rare combination of power and speed. The Rangers' asking price was outfielders Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and pitching prospect Armando Galarraga. The Nationals loved Soriano's bat, and were inclined to make the deal, but they already had an established second baseman in Jose Vidro.

Before the Nationals would give their final approval to the deal, Vice President-General Manager Jim Bowden phoned the suite of his Texas counterparts with one final request: Would the Rangers grant Bowden permission to speak to Soriano first, so that the Nationals could gauge his willingness to move to left field?

The Rangers, who had the power to grant or deny permission because Soriano was still under their control, said no, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the request who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were private.

"We certainly looked at [the Rangers' denial of permission] as a factor," Bowden said recently. "We took it [to mean that] if we talked to the player . . . [the Rangers felt] that the player would say no [to changing positions] and the deal would be killed."

However, as late afternoon turned to evening on Dec. 7, Bowden told the rest of the Nationals' contingent that he wanted to go ahead with the trade.

Bowden, known for both his aggressive pursuit of trades and his love of the spotlight, knew the Soriano deal would make a huge splash in Washington, where the Nationals lacked a big-time player, and around the game. After some brief discussion in the Nationals' suite, the decision was made to make the trade, even without Soriano's blessing.

That night, terms of the trade were announced -- even though it would not be made official until the players passed their physicals -- and Bowden had the dynamic, powerful player he had long coveted.

"When we were not able to sign . . . a number one or two starter, which was our preference, we still needed some offense," Bowden said recently. "We wanted to get a big bat in the middle of our lineup. And obviously, our preference was to get a center fielder or left fielder to provide that offense. But unfortunately, with trades or free agency, we couldn't do that. And the best player out there who we thought could be that player, and who we could get without giving up so much that it would hurt our club, was Soriano."

However, what Bowden may not have realized is that the Nationals, in insisting that Soriano move to the outfield, were about to dive headfirst into an electrically charged issue that Soriano's two previous franchises, the New York Yankees and the Rangers, had only skirted.

When the Nationals finally spoke to Soriano, after the trade was made official, he told them he did not want to move to left field -- a stance he maintained when he reported to camp, accompanied by his agent, on Feb. 23, and when he left a week later to play second base for the Dominican team in the WBC.

While Soriano was gone, the Nationals used his absence to evaluate the balky right knee of Vidro. Had Vidro shown signs of lingering problems with the knee, the team could have had an easy solution, with Soriano replacing Vidro at second base. However, Vidro's knee has held up remarkably well.

Bowden also explored trade possibilities during Soriano's absence, and even invited Soriano's agent, Diego Bentz, to seek deals as well.

However, Bowden said, "At this point we have not been given a trade proposal that makes any sense for the Nationals."

Like the Nationals, Soriano has been careful about his public comments regarding the standoff. However, near the start of the WBC, he was quoted in a story on ESPN.com as saying: "They never even talked to me; they just made the trade and announced I am moving. Am I embarrassed? Yes. They tried to corner me. Now when I come back, how can I learn to play the position in a week or 10 days?"

Put in His Position

In some parts of the Nationals organization, the Dec. 7 trade for Soriano is viewed as a mistake, one that -- barring another trade -- appears to be heading toward a confrontation with Soriano, whose $10 million salary makes him the highest-paid player on the team.

Bowden and the rest of the Nationals' contingent were aware of rumors that Soriano had resisted overtures about moving to the outfield at times earlier in his career. But Bowden felt the Nationals would be able to convince him to accept it in the interest of doing what's best for the team.

"We understood there was a risk that he might refuse to play the outfield," Bowden said. "But Frank had told us a story about when [in 1959 while Robinson was playing for the Cincinnati Reds] he had to change positions. . . . And we also said, 'You know, there's still questions on Vidro's knee.' And when we weighed all the information, we thought it was in our best interests to take the risk and try to convince [Soriano] to play the outfield."

Robinson, who was in the Nationals' suite and participated in discussions as the trade was being considered, declined to answer questions about those discussions. One person who participated in the dialogue regarding the proposed trade said Robinson gave the trade his blessing. Another said Robinson liked the trade on its surface, but expressed concern over making the deal without speaking to Soriano first.

At one point, according to a person with firsthand knowledge of the internal discussions, Bowden told Robinson, "You can handle it."

Robinson did his best to handle it, once the trade was done. On Feb. 23, the day Soriano reported to camp, team officials held a two-hour meeting with him and his agent at a Perkins restaurant in Viera. Robinson did the majority of the talking, according to multiple participants at the meeting. Later that morning, Robinson met alone with Soriano in his office.

In the following days, both Robinson and Soriano said they had formed a bond of mutual respect, but there was no progress toward a resolution. For the entire time Soriano was in the Nationals' camp, he worked out as a second baseman -- often alongside Vidro -- except for occasionally shagging fly balls in the outfield near the end of batting practice.

It is doubtful the view of home plate from out there would seem familiar to Soriano, whose outfield experience consists of five exhibition games there as a 23-year-old trying to break into the New York Yankees' lineup in spring training 2001. Until that point, Soriano had spent his professional career as a shortstop, viewing his position as a matter of pride -- particularly since his home town of San Pedro de Macoris, D.R., was known for producing dozens of big league shortstops.

In the spring of 2001, Soriano clearly had arrived as a prospect. But the Yankees already had a superstar shortstop, Derek Jeter, who had just signed a 10-year, $189 million contract. Still, when Jeter suffered a strained groin that spring, Soriano filled in and went on a tear -- so much so that when Jeter returned a few weeks later, the team was determined to find Soriano a place to play.

That place was left field.

At the time, Soriano would have done anything to get into the Yankees' lineup, and he gladly accepted the position change. The experiment, however, lasted less than a week. Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch was having monumental problems making throws to first base, so the Yankees decided to flip-flop Soriano and Knoblauch.

Soriano started five games in left field that spring, stunning the Yankees with his grace -- something he had lacked as a shortstop.

"We thought he was a very good left fielder," Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said. "He looked natural out there -- very graceful, good instincts."

Once Soriano moved to second base that spring, Cashman said the Yankees never seriously contemplated moving him again, despite a growing perception around the game that he was a sub-par defensive second baseman. Soriano became a star in New York, hitting 39 homers and stealing 41 bases in 2002, and excelling in the postseason.

In February 2004, however, the Yankees traded him to Texas for Alex Rodriguez.

No Force Play in Texas

Immediately after acquiring him, the Rangers felt out Soriano about changing positions. The team had an emerging star at second base in Michael Young, whom they were reluctant to move. But Soriano's representative rejected the move, according to Rangers Manager Buck Showalter.

"The agent was in the first meeting with him and they were pretty adamant about it," said Showalter. "We just talked about trying to make some plans and asked him how he felt about it. It wasn't something we were trying to cram down his throat."

Showalter said Bentz did most of the talking and made it clear that Soriano didn't intend to move. "It was just 'second base, second base, and second base,' " said Showalter.

The issue was resolved when Young, unprompted, walked into Showalter's office and offered to move to shortstop. But Showalter said the team never thought about forcing Soriano to move. He said such a decision not only would have upset Soriano, whom Showalter genuinely liked, but might have ignited the kind of tension that the Nationals are facing.

"We could have very easily been in [the] same situation [as the Nationals] if we wanted to push it," he said.

Another Rangers official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the team considered trying to move Soriano to the outfield another time but decided not to because there were concerns about Soriano's level of concentration at second base -- which, the team figured, would only get worse if he were farther from the action.

"Concentration is his biggest problem, and he also can't make the double play," the Rangers official said. "He could be average [defensively] as a second baseman, but he doesn't seem to care about defense. He's very inconsistent. A routine ball is not necessarily an out with Sori."

The Rangers official's evaluation is backed up by statistics: Soriano's career fielding percentage of .971 at second base is tied for the worst at the position in the last 50 years among players with at least 650 games there.

Bentz declined a request to be interviewed for this story. But many around the game see Soriano's refusal to change positions as being financially motivated. Power-hitting middle infielders are rare, which could make Soriano's free agent value as a second baseman higher than as a left fielder.

However, one baseball executive who knows Soriano dismisses that theory. "The truth is, his value as a below-average second baseman is really not that much higher than it would be as a potentially above-average outfielder. I really think this guy just identifies himself as a second baseman now. He loves playing there."

Barring a change of heart on Soriano's part, however, the Nationals appear to have little choice but to force the issue between Monday and Opening Day, April 3 at Shea Stadium.

Less clear is how Soriano will react. The Nationals have mapped out their options in the event he refuses to play, including possibly placing him on the little-used "disqualified" list, which would allow the team to suspend him without pay and not lose a spot on their 25-man roster.

Aware of how the issue could ruin clubhouse chemistry, the Nationals appear determined to confront it head-on when Soriano arrives.

"This thing is not going to drag on," Robinson said Sunday in Viera. "Let's leave it at that for right now."

Staff writers Steve Fainaru in Surprise, Ariz., and Barry Svrluga in Viera, Fla., contributed to this report.