I read over on Capitol Punishment this morning that the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga indicated in an interview that the Nationals are looking to trade Alfonso Soriano. This would certainly help explain why we're hearing reports about the Nats' interest in yet another option for their outfield, Daryle Ward. Soriano and the $12 million he's trying to get via his arbitration case won't be easy to move. The suitor will have to have a need for a mediocre second baseman, along with quite a bit of cash and the patience to deal with a Soriano-sized ego.

I think it's obvious that trading Soriano was not in the cards when Bowden shipped Wilkerson, Sledge and Armando Galarraga to Texas in exchange for the slugger. His refusal to play in the outfield and Vidro's unhappiness at the situation surely motivated this new direction (and I'm happy to hear that management is being proactive about it now, rather than waiting for a spring training incident). While I do think Wilkie needed a fresh start to bring his game back to form, I was disappointed to see Sledge traded. (I don't know much about Galarraga, so I'll leave that analysis to someone in the know.) I do hope they can move Soriano, and we can put this ugly trade behind us!

Back to the interview, Barry also mentioned that Bowden is interested in Reds' players Wily Mo Pena, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns.

This post was added on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 10:07 am and is filed under Nationals . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.