Alfonso Soriano wants to stay in Washington. His agent would like to make that happen. But, the agent has said, the Nationals haven’t talked about making that happen.
Not so, said incoming president Stan Kasten.
“We’ve had numerous conversations,” Kasten said. “Both Alfonso and I personally and Diego and I in more depth, and a lot more in number.”
That doesn’t mean a deal is close, not with a possible hangup over a no-trade clause.
Soriano’s agent, Diego Bentz, has said often that the Nats have not talked to him about Soriano.
Soriano, a free agent at season’s end, is a likely trade candidate by the July 31st deadline. Kasten said Soriano and Bentz both have privately said they want to stay here. Soriano said no monetary figures have been discussed in his meetings with Kasten.
“They talk about what they want to do with me,” he said. “They know I’m very important. They don’t know what they want to do yet.”
He said a new deal would be hard to reach by the deadline.
“I would think you need a little more time,” he said.
“Our position has never changed,” Kasten said. “We love Alfonso. He’s a potential MVP candidate. But our No. 1 mission is to get to be the best team as soon as possible. We’ll do everything we can that gets us there.”
Soriano wants a no-trade clause. But Kasten, who has run three professional sports franchises, said he’s never included incentives in large deals; nor has he ever put in no-trade clauses.
“You can pay [a player] as much as you want,” he said, “what you can’t give away is your power to improve your club.”
