The Washington Nationals are looking to make some more changes to their pitching rotation prior to spring training, it seems.
According to Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi at FOX Sports, the Nationals won their arbitration case with John Lannan are are now aggressively shopping the southpaw in an attempt to shed payroll and pick up a top-tier free agent. Lannan earned $2.7 million in 2011 and asked for $5.7 million for the upcoming season. The arbitration case came out in favor of the Nats, but his $5 million will make him the highest-paid pitcher on the staff in 2012.
Although the article on FOX Sports mentioned that the Cardinals would be attempting to sign either Roy Oswalt or Edwin Jackson, Rosenthal followed up with a tweet saying that the Nats would definitely be targeting Jackson, rather than Oswalt, after moving payroll with a Lannan trade. Jackson is a right-handed starter who last played on the St. Louis Cardinals.
William Ladson of MLB.com indicated that the Nats are hoping to get a position player in exchange for Lannan, possibly a center fielder. If they can get a reasonable starting center fielder for the pitcher, that might shore up the outfield in the near future along with Jayson Werth and the eventual arrival of Bryce Harper.
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