Lannan on the move?

[love_that_reefer]

The Red Sox, Tigers and Astros are watching John Lannan and a deal involving the left-hander is "likely" Danny Knobler of CBS Sports tweets. The Mets and Padres had interest, but balked at his $5MM salary.

Lannan doesn't have a guaranteed rotation spot in Washington after posting a 3.70 ERA with 5.2 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 184 2/3 innings last year, so he's a potential trade candidate this spring. The Blue Jays, Royals and Tigers are among the teams monitoring the market for starting pitching, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported today.

Lannan is one of those pitchers who dodges bullets. He walks too many for his own good and doesn't strike out enough batters but he gets the job done thanks to high ground ball rate. Every team could use a good ground ball guy, especially the Red Sox who have a good defensive infield.

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With Wang hurt, Nats are likely going to hang on to Lannan.

[love_that_reefer]

John Lannan has formally requested a trade.
Lannan is unhappy about being optioned to Triple-A Syracuse for the start of the regular season. He emailed the media on Wednesday night, stating that "a trade would be the best solution for everyone in both the short and long term." His $5 million salary for 2012 is going to make that quite difficult, but he did post a solid 3.70 ERA in over 180 innings last season.

I don't see his price tag being a problem unlike the author. It's only $5 million. I really don't see why the Nationals optioned him in the first place but it was certainly enough to piss him off. The only thing going against him is that teams are willing to stick with what they have for now after a whole spring of auditioning guys.