Nationals GM Mike Rizzo held a conference call with media this afternoon to discuss his team's agreement with right-hander Edwin Jackson. Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post has some of the pertinent details…
- "We did not acqire Edwin Jackson to trade another starting pitcher," Rizzo said. "In spring training or before spring training, if a deal comes up we can’t pass up that positively impacts our ball club, we’d certainly be open-minded to it.” We heard earlier today that the Nats were shopping John Lannan in order to free up some room for Jackson in the club's rotation.
- In regards to Lannan, Rizzo said that though the southpaw has a minor league option remaining, Washington won't send him down to Triple-A. "We feel that he’s a major league-caliber starting pitcher,” Rizzo said. “He’s a major league starter, and he’s ready to help a contending team. That’s what we’re going to use him as.”
- Rizzo noted that six of last year's playoff teams had at least two starters with 200 innings pitched, and Jackson's presence will help correct the "innings shortage" Rizzo said the Nationals suffered last year. This would seem to be a point in favor of the Nats keeping Lannan, as Kilgore notes Chien-Ming Wang's injury history, Stephen Strasburg's 160-inning limit and the fact that Jordan Zimmermann has never thrown more than 161 frames in a season.
- The Nationals began talking with Scott Boras about Jackson within the last two weeks, and Jackson's willingness to accept a one-year contract was the turning point in negotiations. “The term and the value was too good to pass up," Rizzo said. "We felt it improved our club immensely. There comes a point where his value was such that we were comfortable making the deal.”
So now their not shopping lannan? really do wish writers would get their stories straight before announcing anything. but its good for the nats their not shopping him at the moment. although their open to offers and prob will jump on something they like but doubt it will happen before the deadline in july. maybe they should make a run at cespedes to play RF or CF
The only thing I believe from that story is that they won’t bury 6 million in the minors.
He didn’t say he wasn’t trading Lannan though. He said they see him as a major league starter who can help a contending team. I didn’t see any use of “our” in that statement. He won’t come right out and say he’s on the block because they’ll get ten cents on the dollar for him, but he’s on the block.
Bingo
Has way more trade value than Wang
Its not an announcement. Its keeping his powder dry until he can conclude a deal with the Yankees, maybe Lannan and somebody for Brett Gardner.
Sounds good. Lannan and Bernandina for Gardner
No way B Cash does that..
I would love this trade as a Nats fan but there is no way Casman would make that trade.
I did hear about this trade as a rumor at the start of the offseason and sounded great at the time, but I don’t think the Yankees would do anything with John Lannan. I’d take Bernadina as a backup over Chris Dickerson though.
No way, the Yanks are set, they don’t need Lannen. They would never give up Gardner. The Nats should keep Lannen, they might need him due to the limits on Strasburg and Wang.
I dont get why the nats are signing these people. Dont they know about the Phillies?
Who cares about the Phillies?
I’m sure they’ve heard about the Wild Card.
And the other wild card.
technically that doesn’t exist yet (officially) but yeah I’d consider them the favorites for at least that 2nd Wild Card slot.
I don’t see any way the Nationals aren’t in the Wild Card race until the very end this year. I don’t think they’re ready to go 162 games against the Phillies (and won’t be until they get 200 innings out of Strasburg IMO). They’re solid on paper.
Mlb network picked them as one wild card.
apparently the Phillies can’t be beaten. Hence the reason they’ve won the World Series the last two years.
If the Phillies don’t win the series this year they will be a bust.
You have to hand it to the Nationals, they mean business! The Orioles on the other hand is totally another story! Although, if the Nats paid between 8 to 12 million that’s a bit of an overpay. If they make the playoffs and Jackson is a big part of that, then it’s not, but for right now it is. Bottom line is that’s Lerner’s deal if he wants to spend then he wants to spend and National fans get to enjoy his generousity!
ALso, I keep hearing about Cespedes…. the more I think about him, the more he reminds me of Felix Pie. Would you give a 30 million dollar contract to Pie? I doubt it.
Pie isn’t worth 30 mil and Cespedes could be a good addition for the Nats.
Pie has no power
The Phillies will lose about 4-5 wins next year if the Nationals trade Lannan.
Wait why in the world would Lannan start the year at AAA? I mean he’s not really great or anything but he’s not really much worse than Edwin Jackson.
Right now the Nats have Strasburg, Zimmermann, Gio, and Jackson locked in the rotation. They have Wang, Detwiler, and Lannan left to fill the last spot and Lannan is the only one with an option.
Edwin Jackson will be joining his seventh organization (although the righthander was with Toronto for only a few hours on July 27), topping the five organizations of new rotation mate Gio Gonzalez.
Ten trades between the two starters.
I think E Jackson has found a home! My quess is that he re-ups with the Nats. This is an up and coming team that is very young.