Cordero not as annoyed after Bowden's call

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By Mark Zuckerman

LOS ANGELES | Chad Cordero will fly back to the District this week, gather his belongings, hang out with teammates for a few days and then return to his Southern California home to rehabilitate his injured right shoulder.

One last trip to the District to say goodbye to the Nationals for good? Not necessarily.

“For me, it's not goodbye at all,” Cordero said Saturday. “I love the city. I love the coaches. And I love the players. I want to come back, but that's just something I'm not going to worry about until that day.”

That day is Dec. 12, the deadline for major league clubs to tender contracts to their arbitration-eligible players. The Nationals don't intend to do that with Cordero, who through the system would be guaranteed a minimum of $4.96 million, far more than the organization wants to spend on a pitcher coming back from major surgery.

Cordero understands that. From the moment he found out he had a torn labrum and would miss the rest of 2008, he had a hunch that this scenario would play out.

But Cordero didn't expect general manager Jim Bowden to announce this plan on the radio without first informing him or his agent.

Which explains why Cordero, as he sat in the visitors' dugout at Dodger Stadium on Saturday afternoon with his arm in a sling, still had the look of someone betrayed by the only franchise for which he has pitched.

“All he had to do was call my agent and tell him he was going to make an announcement, and everything would be good,” Cordero said. “But the whole fact it was done without contacting myself or my agent really was what got both of us upset.”

Bowden revealed the plan to non-tender his closer during a Wednesday interview on AM-980. Cordero's father, Ed, heard about it from a friend Thursday and passed on the news to his son, who was stunned. Friday, Bowden called both Cordero and agent Larry Reynolds and apologized.

That phone call went a long way toward appeasing Cordero, who according to those who know him well was ready to walk away from the Nationals altogether before the conversation.