Rocket Bill reports that negotiations continue with Sammy Sosa's people. The article includes this somewhat reassuring tidbit---
Both parties agreed that if Sosa decides to join Washington, it will be for a non-guaranteed contract.
---but I don't know if the following Jim Bowden quotation necessarily supports that reassurance:
"There has not been an agreement about if it will be a Major or Minor League deal, but both sides are working hard at trying to get an agreement that works for both parties," Bowden told MLB.com via e-mail on Thursday night.
If it's a minor league deal, presumably it would not guarantee any money, but maybe I'm missing something here. Notably, Comcast Sportsnet apparently was reporting last night that the deal would be guaranteed, but it looks like that might have been an example of jumping the gun.
So, again, we'll just have to see.
In other news from the afore-linked Rocket Bill article:
- The Nats' team doctor says Jose Vidro's knee is sound as a pound---or will be by Opening Day. He's giving Vidro "a cautious green light" to play in the World Baseball Classic (for Puerto Rico). I wonder if that's like being a little bit pregnant . . .
- Royce Clayton, who looks sort of like The Predator, is in "preliminary discussions" with Team Bodes. Rocket Bill mentions Clayton would perhaps compete with Cristian Guzman for the starting job at shortstop; in addition, Rocket Bill paraphrases Clayton as saying his conversation with Frank Robinson "was the best talk he has had with a manager in years." For some reason, the Red Flag for Attitude Problem seems at the ready. But maybe I'm reading too much into that. Clayton certainly has become well-traveled in the twilight of his career, but that might also be because he's not very good anymore.
- Finally, Rocket Bill reports that Bowden is lusting after former Reds Wily Mo Pena, Austin Kearns, and Adam Dunn. The last one has to be considered utterly implausible; the middle one has been mentioned in a vast, three-team trade, heading to Cleveland; but the first one, Pena, seems like a possibility. His name has been mentioned by Nats' beat writers for the better part of a year now. What with the Reds now being under more Bodes-friendly management, maybe something will get done---not that the Nats have a tremendous amount of talent to offer.