Nats keeping faith in Cristian

During those dark days in the summer of 2005, when Cristian Guzman’s batting average was hovering around .190 and the boos at RFK Stadium were becoming more forceful, it was easy to believe the Washington Nationals had made a colossal blunder.

Four years and $16.8 million for this?

Those numbers - the batting average and the contract value - forever will be attached to Guzman’s name. They are the first two things most fans associate with the Nationals shortstop, and they presented him with the biggest challenge of his professional life.

But those who know him best believe Guzman is better for it. If not for his struggles then, he might not find himself Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, representing Washington in the All-Star Game.

“I think he matured because he went through the booing and we gave him all this money and he didn’t perform and he was always hurt,” general manager Jim Bowden said. “Overcoming all of that, two surgeries, going from [artificial] turf to grass and overcoming the slow start here to being an All-Star? It’s a great story.”

Indeed, there will be few players introduced before Tuesday’s game who can outdo Guzman’s story of perseverance and redemption. Three years ago, the debate was whether he was one of the worst offensive players in baseball history. At the break he leads the National League in hits.

“I feel happy,” he said last week upon learning he had been named an All-Star. “What can I say? I feel great. I’m going to New York.”

That’s about as deep and philosophical at the soft-spoken Guzman is going to get. Never one to seek the limelight, the native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has been playing baseball in the United States for a dozen years now yet still isn’t comfortable conducting large interviews in English.

He has been Washington’s starting shortstop for 3 1/2 years, but even the club’s most ardent fans probably feel like they don’t really know the 30-year-old.

Guzman’s teammates and coaches know that beneath the quiet exterior lies a determined competitor and influential clubhouse presence.

“I feel like people think he doesn’t have any personality,” third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. “But he’s one of the leaders on this team. He doesn’t enjoy losing, and he doesn’t let these guys enjoy losing. And I think that’s a side people don’t see.”

It was perhaps difficult for Guzman to show that fire during his first three seasons in the District because few people will pay attention to a .190-hitter who can’t keep himself healthy. As if his dismal 2005 - his .574 OPS (on-base plus slugging) that year was nearly half that of Albert Pujols’ 1.039 mark - wasn’t embarrassing enough, he missed all of 2006 after shoulder surgery.

“It hurt him,” manager Manny Acta said. “He’s human. You don’t want to be booed. You don’t want to be made fun of. But he’s a very low-key guy who keeps a lot of things to himself and does a very good job of not letting people know how he feels.”

In hindsight, it was a combination of that bum shoulder (an injury that most believe dated back to 2004 with the Minnesota Twins) and poor vision that led to Guzman’s staggeringly poor debut season with the Nationals. He had laser surgery to correct the vision problem before 2006, and once his shoulder was fixed, he returned strong last year to hit .329 in 43 games and erase all those negative connotations that surrounded him. Until …

If there truly has been a low point in Guzman’s Washington career, it came on June 24, 2007, when his hopes of a dramatic comeback season were dashed when he tagged Cleveland’s Josh Barfield hard on the helmet and tore ligaments in his left thumb.

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