Bowden Brings Hope, Players to Washington

Entering the 2004 off-season, the uncertainty surrounding the recently-christened Washington Nationals figured to render the baseball franchise as bystanders while other teams capitalized on one of the deepest free agent classes in recent memory. That was before Jim Bowden.

Since the Nationals’ interim general manager was introduced on Nov. 2, Washington has been the busiest team this off-season, with Bowden’s personnel moves changing the franchise’s face at a pace Michael Jackson could only dream about.

“And we’re only getting started,” Bowden promised Monday at Union Station.

Bowden’s series of rapid moves has breathed new life into a moribund franchise whose growth had stagnated in the three years it has been owned and operated collectively by Major League Baseball’s 29 owners. The acquisitions of veteran third baseman Vinny Castilla and shortstop Cristian Guzman via free agency and the trade for right fielder Jose Guillen have given the team three needed pieces to compliment a talented, but youthful, lineup.

“[Manager] Frank [Robinson] identified a problem with last years team regarding leadership, Castilla fit that mold,” Bowden said during a phone interview with the News-Press last Friday.

While leadership might be a sought after quality, Castilla’s numbers (57 home runs, 207 RBI in the past two seasons with the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies) are not exactly unattractive, as he continues to improve with age. “Our scouts all graded him higher last year, both offensively and defensively, than in the previous two years.”

Likewise, as Guzman enters the prime of his career, he brings the experience of playing with a winning franchise in the Minnesota Twins, American League Central champions for the past three seasons.

“We know that you don’t win without a good shortstop. That’s just how baseball is,” Bowden said. “We looked at [Edgar] Renteria, Nomar [Garciaparra], and [Orlando] Cabrera, but we determined that they didn’t fit financially,” Bowden said. “Guzman was clearly the next name on our list. He’s only 26, so his best years are ahead of him.”

The flurry of activity is seemingly ironic given the situation.

Bowden has no ties to the Nationals organization or the Washington, D.C. area. His title is preceded by the word “interim” and he has maintained that he will step aside when the team is sold, returning to ESPN where he serves as a baseball analyst. According to USA Today columnist Hal Bodley, he hasn’t even changed the voice mailbox message at the team’s Viera, Fla. offices, which still features that of former GM Omar Minaya, who departed for the same post with the New York Mets before the end of the 2004 season. But lack of a long term job, or a connection to the team or the D.C. area hasn’t damped down Bowden’s effort in the least.

“I’m putting in my 17-hour days,” Bowden says. “To me it doesn’t matter. I’ve had a one-year contract and I’ve had a five-year contract before, you have to treat it like you’re going to be there for life and make good decisions for the long term.”

The high opinion of those affiliated with the Nationals organization was readily apparent at Monday’s proceedings.

During the comments of others affiliated with the team, Bowden seemingly received just as many compliments for his work over three weeks as District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams and the city’s council members received for three years of work attempting to lure the franchise to D.C.

The pride and exuberance Bowden places in his position are evident simply speaking to him, but were easily seen at Monday’s ceremony at Union Station unveiling the new team name and logo.

Despite the fact that Williams’ entire political career is likely tied to this stadium deal, Bowden, not Williams, displayed the most fire during his remarks, speaking with a “non-scary Howard Dean type of passion,” according to one observer.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to be the first general manager to carry the torch back to Washington,” Bowden says in the interview.

His passion for the game developed from all that the sport has given him in his life.

Baseball gave him his first job after graduating from Rollins College, where he roomed with the son of the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. That connection led to a job in the team’s publicity department “licking envelopes.” Baseball later gave him the honor of being its youngest general manager in history (a distinction now owned by Red Sox GM Theo Epstein), when he assumed the mantle with the Reds in 1992. Baseball later allowed him to pursue a career in broadcasting with ESPN after the Reds parted ways with him midway through the 2003 season. So when CEO of Major League Baseball Bob DuPuy approached him about the Expos’ GM position after MLB head disciplinarian Bob Watson passed on it, in Bowden’s mind, there was no decision at all … and no hesitation about getting to work.

“The next day FedEx became very busy,” Bowden said of the influx of team related materials. “We had more documents than President Clinton’s new library.”

Immediately after accepting the position, even before he spoke with any member of the Expos organization, Bowden contacted Angels GM Bill Stoneman to signal his interest in Jose Guillen, who had fallen out of favor with the club after a dispute with Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Shortly after his interview last Friday, Bowden executed the trade.

For Bowden, these aggressive moves are par for the course. In Cincinnati he pulled off the trade that brought in Ken Griffey Jr., and in 1995 engineered a series of trades to land David Wells, Mark Portugal and Dave Burba that helped propel the team to the National League Championship Series where they lost to the Braves.

While Bowden has been typically aggressive this off-season, he has been mindful of the limited team budget, an obstacle he also dealt with in Cincinnati. Thus far, he has successfully brought in talented players at very affordable prices. Castilla and Guzman combined will make less this season than the Expos starting left-infield tandem of Orlando Cabrera and Tony Batista did last season. And in Guillen, Bowden landed a 30 HR, 100 RBI-player for just $3.5 million a season.

“When I’m given a number, we put together the best team on the field for that number,” Bowden says.

Bowden’s ties to Cincinnati could lead the Nationals to land another free agent this off-season in veteran free agent shortstop Barry Larkin. Larkin could act as a super-utility player, but would offer a great deal of experience to the young National roster.

“He is one of the finest human beings I've ever met,” Bowden said in a recent interview with MLB.com. “Second of all, he always knew how to play the game. He’s a very unselfish player. He never cared about his batting average. With a man on second and nobody out, he would hit a ground ball on the right side to get the guys over.

“The work that he did with Bret Boone, Aaron Boone, Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns and Wily Mo Pena is unbelievable. It doesn’t matter who it is. Barry will spend hours with them in the batting cages, talking to them in the dugout. He doesn’t tolerate if you don't run a ball out. He doesn’t tolerate if you don’t play the game right.”

Bowden’s moves have been an about-face for a franchise in limbo that had to trade away many of its key players over the past three years. During that time, the most notable free agent acquisition was Carl Everett, who was traded away for prospects this past season. However, those moves have left Bowden and the Nationals with a core of young talent on the major league roster, and a group of prospects that can serve as trade bait.

The moves have started the Washington franchise in the right direction and if nothing else, have peaked the interest of fans. To date, more than 13,000 season ticket deposits have been made, already bettering the team’s attendance figures last year in Montreal. And this is before partial season-ticket plans and individual game tickets have even gone on sale.

“It’s all about the fans. That’s what baseball’s about. It’s about the children,” Bowden said Monday. “It’s about people in the community coming to baseball games and enjoying the game together. There’s not a better feeling than going into the streets of Washington and in the suburbs and see little kids running around in Nationals uniforms with Wilkerson or Chavez on the back. Anything we can do for the community, that’s what we’re here to do.”

While Bowden will depart after the new owners purchase the team, and his name won’t grace the back of a Nationals jersey, it is likely the baseball fans in D.C. will remember it for some time to come.

Mike Hume may be emailed at mhume@fcnp.com