Last year, John Lannan threw 184 innings and finished with a 3.70 ERA. Since joining the Nationals' rotation full-time in 2008, Lannan has thrown 716 innings with a 103 ERA+. He's been valuable and productive for the Nationals, who didn't have a lot of reliable starting pitching in those years. His reward was a trip this spring to the minor leagues.
When you put it like that, you can see how a fella would be ticked. Lannan requested a trade, which seems perfectly reasonable for a veteran in his situation.
But Lannan certainly isn't helping his cause:
Year | Lev | GS | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | AAA | 6.63 | 4 | 19.0 | 29 | 14 | 2 | 10 | 9 |
Lannan actually had his best start of the year on Wednesday night, going seven full innings, allowing four walks, eight hits, and four runs. He got the win, too, with the help of six RBI from Mark Teahen. That's a sentence you weren't expecting to read today.
There's still a chance for Lannan to be traded; those 716 major-league innings almost certainly mean more than the 19 minor-league innings. But considering that he's making $5 million this season, he isn't exactly facilitating a trade.