The Washington Nationals may be regretting not trading away Alfonso Soriano when they had the chance, because now he’s signed a multi-year deal with the Cubs and they’ve got nothing to show for it:
That slugger Alfonso Soriano is leaving the Washington Nationals is hardly a shock, given the club’s long-term vision of rebuilding a winner through its farm system and Soriano’s status as the most electric free agent on the market.
But the contract Soriano agreed to yesterday — an eight-year, $136 million deal with the Chicago Cubs — sent waves through baseball and established Soriano as the first beneficiary of an industry that finds itself flush with cash this offseason, and likely also drove up the price for other free agents. Two weeks before baseball’s winter meetings begin, the spending has started.
The Nationals new strategy, rather than relying on stars like Soriano does make sense, but it would’ve been smart, I think, for them to get something by trading him rather than just letting his contract lapse.
November 20th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Only Jay Mariotti could travel to East Rutherford and then write about the Soriano signing rather than the Bears game that he was assigned to cover. Nice to see the Sun-Times getting their money’s worth from this employee. Sign the petition to have Mariotti fired!