Every year at this time, the Hot Stove League seems to cool off noticeably, leaving baseball minds to ponder the less intriguing storylines of the offseason. And really, who's to blame them for focusing on other things? We're knee-deep in Superbowl mania, the Winter Olympics are on tap soon, and pitchers and catchers won't report for another two weeks.

Of course, here in Washington we have numerous dramas unfolding to help keep the homefire burning (Sosa, Soriano, stadium/ownership, etc.). My pick from the weekend has to be this priceless gem from interim GM Jose Guillen:

"Soriano is like Vlad [Guerrero], he's a happy man,"

What exactly does he mean by "happy man," eh? Perhaps this? Or maybe he relaying Sori's good feelings towards Ken Rosenthal, who must have forgotten to take his smart pills when he wrote this little nugget:

The Nationals want to move Soriano to the outfield; Soriano intends to stay at second base. A trade is possible, but a more logical solution would be a juicy long-term contract that would entice Soriano, a potential free agent, to change positions. The idea that Soriano's value is highest as a second baseman no longer is valid. Soriano has committed a major-league high 105 errors at second over the last five seasons; Jeff Kent and Ray Durham are next with 59 each, according to STATS Inc.

No. Please, please, please no. For the love of all that is good and holy, no. As I've said before, the primary goal for GM Jim Bowden should be to AVOID multi-year term deals unless they involve one of the core players on this roster, i.e. Schneider (check), Zimmerman (we'll see after this season), Cordero (not yet), and Patterson (we'll see if he repeats this year). With the notable exception of Cristian Guzman, JimBo has managed to mostly avoid this trap (Marlon Anderson, notwithstanding). Bowden is essentially an interim GM until the team gets sold and he should try to leave as small a mess as possible for the next GM to clean up. Dealing with a multi-year deal for Soriano would be the baseball equivalent of cleaning up after a three-day toga party.

When it comes down to it, I agree with the Distinguished Senator that Soriano will do some math and figure out that he stands to lose a lot more free agent money by sitting out '06 than by playing in the outfield and spelling Vidro at 2B and skipping town the minute the regular season is over.

Sosa Watch: Day 20

Jose "Good With Kids" Guillen did his part for Sosa Watch over the weekend by continuing his whirlwind round of international diplomacy by urging his fellow Dominican to come play in DC, even if means taking a minor league deal. The Sammy drama is quickly progressing into the realm of foregone conclusion for me. If he gets a better offer, he'll take it. If not, he'll sign with the Nats for non-guaranteed money on the eve of Spring Training. Hopefully Bowden won't cave in to Sosa's agents, as Newsday's Ken Davidoff suggested yesterday:

You've got to figure the Washington Nationals, having talked extensively with Sosa and his reps, will bring him in. The holdup is the guaranteed money, but given GM Jim Bowden's reputation for taking gambles, maybe he'll bend and commit to Sosa. Don't be surprised if the game of chicken goes on for a little while longer, though.

Kearn-els of Wisdom

Rumor has it that the Nats are pursuing Cincinnati OF Austin Kearns, though Cincy interim GM Brad Kullman's comments on Saturday suggest that speculation about a deal may be premature. With Sean Casey being shipped off the the Pirates and Adam Dunn moving to 1B, the outfield logjam in Cincinnati appears to be alleviated for the moment, so Kullman could be for real when he says that Kearns is staying. Still, if the Nats succeed in signing RP Felix Rodriguez (I join Farid in wondering when's that gonna happen, btw...), then I could easily see some combination of Ayala or Majewski and a minor league arm going to the Reds in exchange for Kearns. Ayala has experience closing games and the Reds are perpetually starved for quality pitching.

And that would be a very good deal. A healthy Kearns basically gets us the same production Brad Wilkerson provided at a fraction of the cost, as their 162-game averages bear out:

Wilkerson - .256/.365/.452 with 21 HR and 66 RBI. 2006 salary: $3.9M
Kearns - .266/.360/.461 with 24 HR and 95 RBI. 2006 salary: $1.85M

As you can see, Kearns is essentially the same player as Wilk. I would discount the gaudier HR and RBI numbers for Kearns since he plays in a bandbox with a much more powerful offense to protect him. Granted, the key phrase above is "healthy Kearns." Kearns has yet to crack 400 AB in any of his 4 MLB seasons while Wilk got over 500 AB in each of his 4 seasons as an MLB regular. I wouldn't assume that Kearns has caught "Griffey-itis" though. He lost significant time in '04 due to a broken forearm from an errant pitch and later due to thumb surgery. These aren't the kind of lingering injuries that would dissuade me from recommending a guy. I think he's mostly been a victim of the crowded Cincinnati outfield taking away his ABs. The kid certainly has a high ceiling, being all of 25 years old (a year younger than Ryan Church even). Having Kearns around to patrol the OF would certainly be preferable to watching Sammy Sosa run down triples. A Guillen, Soriano, Kearns OF would actually be fairly potent, IMO. Stick Sori in RF where his awful defense does the least amount of damage, Guillen in left, and Kearns in center.

Ward, de los Santos Sign Minor League Deals

A lack of time to post on Friday means that you've probably already seen this info, but journeyman 1B/OF Daryle Ward and RP Valerio de los Santos were both signed to minor league deals. I've already discussed why I don't like the Ward signing. De los Santos is one of those insignificant players who bounce around to teams in need of warm bodies. He's been fairly awful in limited duty with Toronto and Florida the past two seasons (6.16 ERA, -1.6 VORP). Hopefully we'll only see him up with the big club in fill-in duty in the event of an injury in the 'pen.

That's all for now. I have some interesting Nats nuggets from the Bill James Handbook 2006 that I've been meaning to write about. Hopefully I have the time to do so tomorrow. Until then ... Bang! ZOOOOM!