What was Jim Bowden thinking?

Shock of all shocks, Alfonso Soriano isn't going anywhere near left field. I talked about Soriano's refusal to move about a month ago, and now it looks like the National's nightmare is for real.  Seriously, could things have crashed to the ground any harder? Forget for a moment that everyone saw this coming, even more so if you're employed in the National's Front Office. Now the season starts in two weeks and the Nationals need to find someone to get between ball and turf in left. First, if you're National's GM Jim Bowden, why in the world do you trade for Soriano? You traded for the best offensive second baseman, even though you had no intention of playing him at second base. And you thought he would just happily shift to left field? And now, you can't even trade him away because, "we have not had a trade proposal from any team in baseball that we should consider," said Bowden. Note that in the picture to your left, no one is flashing a genuine smile. They already know they're all screwed.

But the most impressive thing is the way it all went down. There wasn't a press conference where Soriano said he was unwilling to play the outfield and would prefer the Nationals reconsider their position. Not a chance; the Nationals took the field for a game, but they were minus one dude. Frank Robinson had to go out and tell the umpire that he was sorry, but he had to change the lineup. In other words, Soriano didn't even feel it worthwhile to tell his team that he had no intention of playing in their baseball game. Not that they would've needed a crystal ball to see it coming, but still, it would've been nice. Now the Nats need to get rid of Soriano in the next two weeks or place him on the disqualified list, in which case they don't have to pay him and pretty much get to wait until someone crazy enough offers a good trade.

The details are out, and basically it happened like this; Soriano showed up for the game on Monday and told Robinson that, while he was sketched into the lineup card for left field, he wasn't going anywhere near it. Robinson told him to shut up, because Vidro was playing second base and Soriano was playing left, and that if he didn't like it he wasn't gonna play at all. The team took batting practice, and then there was another meeting between Soriano and Robinson, along with GM Jim Bowden. This went pretty much the same way, with Soriano asking, "Why didn't you try to talk to me before you made the trade?" Uh, good question. As wrong as I think Soriano is in his handling of the situation, he's not the bad (or worst, at least), guy. He didn't ask to be traded, and if he had, he would've said there's no way in hell.

Think about this from Bowden's perspective. You're in your 2nd year in DC, and you're getting a new stadium, but you cannot make any stupid mistakes. You don't have a ton of money to mess around with, and you can't just absorb a contract if you screw up. That being said, if you need a left fielder, you go out and acquire a left fielder. If you can't do that, then you sit tight. You don't grab a second baseman to fill that spot in your outfield. And, if you're so high that you're gonna try to pull that off anyway, you make sure that second baseman hasn't publicly said that he'll never switch positions because he's much more valuable at 2nd than in the outfield. If you're still not clued in, and you decide to go ahead with the deal, you make sure that 2nd baseman is in on the plan before he gets shipped out. If he isn't, (or if you don't know because the Rangers won't let you talk to him,) then you call the deal off. If, after all that, you still acquire your All-Star 2nd baseman and he tells you it's not gonna work out, you immediately set about moving him or your current 2nd baseman. In other words, sitting around through the entire WBC with your head in the sand just hoping he'll change his mind was probably a very bad idea.

It doesn't appear that the Nationals are acting logically here. Someone please tell me, did I miss something? Is there something exceptionally weird going on that makes this whole thing ok? Was Vidro not supposed to be back this year? Did Soriano just now become a full-time second baseman? Are the Rangers forcing the Nationals to hold Soriano captive because he's a bad guy, and now that they've cleared Rogers out of the clubhouse they want to keep all the bad energy as far away as possible? I don't understand. Nine out of ten little leaguers aren't going to move from 2nd to outfield, let alone the best 2nd baseman - offensively, mind you - in Major League Baseball. This is outstanding. Way to screw up your season, Jim. Have a nice year.

I also came across the fact that Jim Bowden screwed up the Reds before he headed to DC.

Alfonso Soriano - February 23, 2006
Soriano, Nats at impasse over outfield (MLB.com) - March 20, 2006
A Quick Lesson on Hiring Practices - March 21, 2006