Michael Rosenberg http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5837666 Oh, I get it. The Washington Nationals really want to keep Alfonso Soriano. No wonder they decided he would change positions without discussing it with him, then tried to trade him every day for the past three months. They did it because they want to keep him. Sure. Makes perfect sense. No matter how much they spin it, the Nationals bungled this. They were right to shop Soriano. But they let it get so public (and he played so well) that it all unfolded into one big mess. Their fans got angry. Totally understandable. When the best player on a mediocre team is on the trading block, fans get angry. The key is not to let public opinion drive your decisions — all the best executives know that. Except ... The general manager, Jim Bowden, is trying to keep his job. He couldn't afford to alienate his fan base, and besides, Bowden likes to be loved; he all but puts on TV makeup before he gets out of bed in the morning. After publicly talking about how much Soriano is worth, Bowden had to get a huge return in order to make the deal. And nobody wanted to give him that for a two-month rental. So now the Nationals are saying "What? You thought we said we'd move him? No, no no. We said we'd soothe him." "Others will offer money, too," team president Stan Kasten told the Washington Post, "but nowhere will he have the city behind him, the locker room behind him, the way he has it here." It's a nice sales pitch. Of course, the Nationals spent the last three months dangling Soriano in front of every general manager in baseball and letting every reporter on the planet know about it. And Kasten is the same guy who has insisted he doesn't give out no-trade clauses. The word "fair" probably doesn't belong in any conversation about a man who will pull down an eight-figure salary for playing a boy's game, but think about this for a second. The Nationals want Soriano to commit to D.C. They think his love for the city should be a factor. But they won't commit to keeping him in D.C. by giving him a no-trade clause. In other words, they can change their mind, but he can't. If the Nationals don't come around on that no-trade clause, they'll almost certainly lose Soriano. And if they lose him for a silly reason like that, they will annoy their fan base as much as if they had traded him Monday. Remember: Soriano still has a condo in the New York area and never wanted to leave the Yankees. The Yankees might come calling in the off-season. (Where will they play him? Who cares? They're the Yankees. They'll invent a position.) Maybe Soriano loves D.C., but does he love it that much more than he loves New York? The Nationals will probably lose Soriano in free agency. But if they re-sign him, all is well, right? Wrong. For all the talk about Soriano this season — and nobody in baseball has generated more discussion — one thing you don't hear is the obvious: the man is having a career year in a contract year. His OPS of .953 is way better than his previous career best of .879. In the last two years in Texas, Soriano's OPS was .808 and .821. Soriano has power, he has speed, and even in his worst year, he is a very good player. But the Nationals will have to give him superstar money to keep him, and it is statistically unlikely that he will play like a superstar for the duration of his contract. Is it risky to give a guy huge money after a career year? Does the name Adrian Beltre mean anything to you? The Nationals had a coveted player having a career year as he entered free agency. They are not in the playoff hunt. That is exactly the time when you make a deal. Now they lose either way — they either overpay for Soriano or they get draft choices instead of high-level minor leaguers. Bowden himself said that if he were to lose a player like Soriano, he would like more than just compensatory draft choices. If Bowden had secured at least one big-time prospect and one or two good ones for Soriano, the Nationals would have a better chance at the playoffs in the future. The playoffs, by the way, are how some teams try to please their fans. Next time, the Nationals ought to remember that. --

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