Soriano Finds Himself in a Good Position

"I always had love for the game. I was smiling and happy because I loved the game. But inside my heart, I didn't feel very happy, because I felt like I [didn't] want to be there -- because of the way the people treated me. It's not the right way," says Alfonso Soriano, of his first -- and only -- spring training with the Nats a year ago. (Reuters)

MESA, Ariz. -- There is a part of Alfonso Soriano still unwilling to acknowledge the notion that he is, and most likely forever will be, an outfielder. He would be the happiest man in baseball if the Chicago Cubs came to him tomorrow and told him they wanted him to play second base. But he is no longer ready to fight for that position. The passage of a year's time, not to mention the addition of $136 million to his bank account, have brought him, though perhaps grudgingly, to the only conclusion possible: Jim Bowden was right.

"When [Bowden] tried to move me left field, I didn't have a good relationship with him," Soriano said, recalling his monumental positional battle against the Washington Nationals' general manager last spring. "But I have to give him credit. It wasn't [done] the right way. But he moved me to the outfield, and I have to give him credit because he opened my eyes. It helped me get this contract. He made me more valuable as a player."

After signing the largest contract -- eight years, $136 million -- in baseball's wild winter spending spree, Soriano reported to the Cubs' spring training camp last week almost completely free of drama. This time, the designer shades stretched across his face were there because they looked good, not because he wanted to hide his eyes. His smile and his strut were unforced.

There remains some question about what position he will play this season -- he surprised team officials by volunteering to play center field, and new manager Lou Piniella said Sunday the team will open the spring with that plan in mind. But it is nothing like the awkward, acrimonious stare-down that took place a year ago in Viera, Fla., when, in essence, the Nationals told Soriano to go to left field, and Soriano, at least initially, said no.

"I was hurting inside" over the switch, Soriano said, in his first full retelling of the Viera saga since signing his Cubs contract in November. "I always had love for the game. I was smiling and happy because I loved the game. But inside my heart, I didn't feel very happy, because I felt like I [didn't] want to be there -- because of the way the people treated me. It's not the right way."

Back in December 2005, when the Nationals traded for Soriano -- at the time a four-time all-star second baseman for the Texas Rangers -- Bowden immediately told reporters that the Nationals planned to move him to left field, something he had not yet told the player. That, in Soriano's mind, was Bowden's first mistake.

"He said a lot of things in the paper before talking to me," Soriano said. "That bothered me."

Bowden, asked to respond to Soriano's comments, said in an e-mail response that the Nationals never spoke to Soriano beforehand because the Rangers -- who still owned Soriano's rights until all the players involved in the trade took physicals and the deal was made official -- denied permission.

"Obviously, in retrospect, we wish we had been given permission to talk to Alfonso in person before the trade was leaked to the media, so we could have at least discussed the matter with him first," Bowden said.

When the Nationals finally had a lengthy discussion with him about the planned move to left field at the start of spring training a year ago, "I said no," Soriano said. "But they did it anyway."

In the early stages of camp, Soriano was allowed to take ground balls with the second basemen -- owing, at least theoretically, to the fact he would be playing second base for the Dominican Republic in that spring's World Baseball Classic. But the standoff came to a climax on March 20, when the Nationals put Soriano in their lineup in left field, only to see him go missing when they took the field for the top of the first inning.

Soriano still insists he was unaware he was in the lineup that day. However, he acknowledges his initial inclination was to fight the position change, with the likely help of the union, no matter how bloody it got.