John Lannan, Jesus Flores overlooked by Washington Nationals as Friday deadline passes-MLB Update
Starting pitcher John Lannan and catcher Jesus Flores have been ignored by Washington Nationals as they were not tendered before the Friday deadline.
As per the rules, the Nationals were bound to make a decision about players that had not been offered contracts for 2013 season before Friday.
By non-tendering Lannan and Flores, they have given signals to other organisations that they can sign these players if they fulfil their needs.
Apparently, arbitration eligibility of these two players discouraged the Nationals to go after them.
Besides, the Nationals already have a reasonable supply of players for the roles that Lannan and Flores perform.
Although one starter is missing in the rotation of Washington, Lannan does not fulfil the criteria of the kind of hurler that the club is looking for.
As far as Flores is concerned, he is just not required by the team even if his performance was reasonable during 2012 season.
This is because both Wilson Ramos and Kurt Suzuki boast amazing credentials as catcher. These two individuals are capable of leading the Nationals’ expedition successfully next year.
Though Ramos is still in the process of recovering from injury, he is highly likely to play for the club next year.
Flores can start seeking admission in some other organisation now.
Similarly, Lannan can look to respond to the interests that the teams needing a starting pitcher may show in him.
In many ways, Lannan must be happy for being excluded from the roster of the Nationals. For example, he is among the longest-serving players of them and yet he was not given many opportunities during 2012 season.
By playing for another team, he can gain more experience at the Major League level as opposed to spending most of the time in the Minors during the season.
Due to the presence of the likes of Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and others, he failed to start as many games during 2012 as he would have wanted.
It was more due to fierce competition in the team for finding a spot in rotation than his lack of Major League credentials that Lannan did not start a great number of games in the last season.
It will be interesting to see where Lannan and Flores go and play next year.
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