So what exactly was the Nationals’ reaction when the Detroit Tigers handed star first baseman Prince Fielder a nine-year, $214 million contract on Tuesday. After all, Washington was considered a prime landing spot for the free-agent slugger.
“All along we were satisfied and happy with the position of first base with what we’ve got. Does Prince Fielder help any club he’s with? There’s no question about it,” general manager Mike Rizzo said. “Were we interested in him? There’s no question about it. We were in the negotiations until it didn’t make sense for us to be in the negotiations any longer so we had to back out. Prince is a terrific player and he got paid like the superstar that he is. Congratulations to the Detroit Tigers. They just got a lot better.”
And why didn’t the Nats? Rizzo admitted his team was in the mix until “very close” before Fielder and agent Scott Boras decided to go with the Tigers.
“I had parameters set in my mind with what my threshold was for the player and once it exceeded that threshold, we felt that if the market didn’t come back to us, we were out of it,” Rizzo said.
He declined to get into specifics about his discussions with Boras.
It didn’t hurt, according to Rizzo, that he had other options at first base. Adam LaRoche says he’s healthy. The team believes he’s healthy after shoulder surgery last year. And if they need to trade him at some point during the season, Michael Morse can always shift back to the position he played much of 2011. Neither of those players is Prince Fielder. But Washington just wasn’t going to agree to an eight or nine-year contract.
“We feel that we no longer have to beg and overpay for players to come to us,” Rizzo said. “We feel that this is becoming an attractive place for major league players to play. Jayson Werth’s signing has a lot to do with that. We acquired a major free agent to come here with a 69-win team. We’ve performed much better and shown that the organization is in much better shape.”
So provided a trade doesn’t bring in another big bat, possibly a center fielder, the Nats are looking for internal improvement – from a healthy LaRoche and Ryan Zimmerman, from an improved Werth, from a consistent Michael Morse and leaps forward at the plate by catcher Wilson Ramos, shortstop Ian Desmond and second baseman Danny Espinosa. If another major addition needs to wait until 2013 so be it.
“We’re a team that’s turning the corner and the needle is pointing up and it’s going to be an attractive place for players to play,” Rizzo said. “There’s players that want to play here, agents call me to come and play for the Washington Nationals and that is a 180 from where we were as early as two years ago, we remember, when we won 59 games.”
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