by Benjamin Kabak August 02, 2006 As Monday’s trade deadline rolled around, Nationals’ General Manager Jim Bowden seemed to be in the driver’s seat. His franchise was one in need of an infusion of young talent, and many of Bowden’s top players were viewed as pieces that could fit on playoff contending teams. But as the dust settled after 4 p.m. on Monday, the Nationals were left largely in tact. Their big bopper Alfonso Soriano still manned left field that night; their supposed ace Livan Hernandez and rumored-to-be-traded Tony Armas are still on the staff; even their latest acquisition Austin Kearns is still wearing the script W this week. Was this week a blown opportunity for Bowden and new team president Stan Kasten to begin a much-needed rebuilding process? For a few years, the Washington Nationals have been a team in search of direction. As the MLB-owned Expos, the team was forced to shed payroll. They couldn’t sign big free agents; they couldn’t even afford the slot money for their top draft picks in some cases. They were left adrift with no player development staff and no scouting department to speak off. But even still, MLB hired a proven General Manager Jim Bowden to oversee the team’s move to Washington. Bowden is far from a popular choice with the fans though. He has a reputation as an overly active GM on the trade market and for shooting for the moon when that could harm rather than help his team. It seems that both sides of Trader Jim’s persona were at work this week. The biggest move Bowden didn’t make was trading Alfonso Soriano. For week, everyone in baseball assumed Soriano would go. The 30-year-old has long been something of an enigma. He’s a fast power-hitter with no plate discipline and a motivation issue. While Soriano is having one of his best offensive seasons ever with an OBP nearly .040 higher than his career average and a slugging percentage that far outpaces his career mark, Soriano’s motivation has long been an issue. Is Soriano playing this well to reach his personal goal of a 40/40 season that eluded him a few years ago? Is Soriano playing this well because he can count the $65 million contract awaiting him in the promised land of free agency? All we know for sure is that Soriano was basically dumped by the Yankees after a pitiful 2003 postseason and that Soriano didn’t play up to expectations among a loaded lineup in a hitter’s park in Texas. With these factors in mind, the rational decision would have been to sell high. Many teams wanted Soriano’s bat for the stretch drive and would have parted with Major League-ready talent in exchange. The Nationals, conveniently enough, are short Major League-ready talent in their farm system. They have a bunch of aging, mediocre players taking the field each day in DC and not much in the way of relief coming down the pike. But Bowden didn’t sell at all. He’s decided that Soriano will stick around and play out the last 57 games in Washington, D.C. The Nats will try to sign him to a five-year deal worth about $65-$70 million, and he’ll become the face of the franchise. There’s nothing like giving a selfish player on the wrong side of 30 an incredibly overvalued contract. In his six full season in the Majors, Soriano is having a career year, and everyone about that screams outlier, to borrow a math term. He is far exceeding his career averages in every offensive category, and there is no good reason to think he’ll get better as he gets older. But for now, he stays. The story in Washington is the same for many players. Livan Hernandez, Jose Vidro, Jose Guillen (before he got injured), Tony Armas and Austin Kearns all could have fetched the Nats should talent. Instead, this patchwork roster of spare parts is kept intact by a General Manager who cannot decide whether to sell or not. The writers at Oleanders and Morning Glories summed it up best: That's why I'm depressed, I guess. I look at the Nationals and I see a version of the KC Royals. I look at Alfonso Soriano and I see Mike Sweeney. A player who had his best year of his career in his walk year, who the fans and players desperately wanted management to resign. A player that should have been dealt if the team was serious about keeping costs low and rebuilding from within. I don't believe Lerner/Kasten will ever let it get as bad as it has been in KC, but at the same time I don't believe they'll kick in the payroll necessary for it to be good, as in playoff contender. I don't care how exciting Soriano makes it, I don't want to spend the next few years watching an 80 million dollar, 80 win team. And they're not the only ones bemoaning the lack of action. In the end, it was just the latest poor move in a franchise adrift in a sea of smarter competitors. As the Nationals look ahead to a new state-of-the-art ballpark in downtown D.C., the fans won’t have the same enthusiasm. They’ll simply see a bunch of worthless older veterans who should have been turned into younger talent this year. It is mediocrity and a schizophrenic baseball mind on display for all the world to see. --

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