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The Nationals further ensured themselves of a last place finish in 2006 by signing two more #5 starters, Tony "Walking Wounded" Armas Jr. and Ramon "Yes, I'm really 32" Ortiz, to patch together the rest of the rotation behind #1 Livan Hernandez and #2 Jon Patterson. The question is this: Is there a team out there with a worse 3-4-5 than whatever combination of Lawrence, Armas, Drese, and Ortiz is used?
"I understand completely what Soriano was saying. If I was in his situation, I would probably be doing the same thing. A quality player like him is coming to a new team. Obviously, he wants to play his position. ... Soriano is defending himself. I'm not mad at him at all." (Jose Vidro, quoted on MLB.com 12/26/2005)
A week later, and Alfonso "There Is No I In Team" Soriano still appears unwilling to relocate from second base to the outfield: "I don't want to change...If I haven't done it before, I won't do it now." (via AP/Sports Illustrated dot com)
"I often wondered why it was taking so long to either be offered to come back or for them to say they were waiting to see whether new ownership wanted me to come back...Tell me something. I was looking for something in that respect. There was no response, but I kind of understood that under the circumstances." (via Washington Times 12/16/2005)
It's official: The Nats add much needed speed and power to their lineup, dealing Brad Wilkerson, Terrmel Sledge, and minor league pitcher Armando Galarraga to Texas for second baseman Alfonso Soriano. What this deal means, among other things, is that Bowden and the Nats now have a potentially messy situation to sort out, with two former All-Star second basemen, one of whom is on record as saying he will not move to the outfield. Most likely this is the end of the road for Jose Vidro in Washington, because Soriano isn't going to budge on his stance that he will not play in the outfield: "It's the problem of the team. They know they have Vidro and they [have me] at second base, too. That's not my problem. That's not Vidro's problem. That's the team's problem." (MLB.com 12/13/2005)
"It's just like Loaiza...We're very happy with the job he did for us, and we didn't want to lose him. But with the level of salary he ended up with from other clubs, we couldn't do it." (Jim Bowden via Washington Post 12/3/2005)
