Tigers tracking Chad Cordero

Farewell to the Chief?

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - If baseball experts are right, the Nationals won’t have to worry about the N.L. East race. They won’t be in it.

But the race that might interest them the most is in the A.L. Central. Or, at least, that’s the one that Chad Cordero might need to monitor.

The word is, Detroit is tracking the Nats reliever in case their bullpen falters them in the first half of the season. If that happens, then the Tigers would start serious trade talks for Cordero (provided he’s healthy and pitching well), the Nats closer since coming to Washington in 2005.

A source close to the Tigers said the team already talked to Nats General Manager Jim Bowden during spring training about Cordero. Look for those talks to heat up if the Nats are out of the race and the Tigers’ bullpen is struggling.

And based on what the pundits say, the Nats would be better off building for the future. ESPN the Magazine predicted a fourth-place finish; Sports Illustrated pegged them at 73 wins and the Sporting News said they’d finish fourth and rated them 25th overall.

“The N.L. East is a three-team race,” ESPN analyst Dave Campbell said.

The teams: Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York.

As for the Nats, Campbell called for more patience.

“They have to model their franchise after the Atlanta Braves,” he said, “and it took Stan [Kasten] five or six years to build them up. Starting pitching is the key. They have a terrific bullpen. Third base and first base are solid. Centerfield, maybe they’ve solved their problem there. [Austin] Kearns is a disappointment over what I thought he would be. And when you have Odalis Perez open the season for you, it’s like someone said, ‘There’s Opening Day pitchers and