John Lannan

Lannan spent most of the season biding his time in Triple-A, as the Nationals did not have room on their suddenly-stacked pitching staff for a crafty lefty with very fringy stuff. Stephen Strasburg's innings cap eventually opened a spot for Lannan and he put up his usual numbers in six starts, but the Nats non-tendered him in the offseason before the Phillies elected to give him a one-year, $2.5 million deal in December. If he fails to secure the fifth starter spot in spring training, Lannan will likely be shifted into a long-relief role.

Lannan had the best season of his career in 2011 as he registered a 4.28 FIP and 4.24 xFIP in 184.2 innings. He relied on his three off-speed pitches (slider, change-up and curveball) more frequently, and as a result had the highest swinging-strike percentage of his career (7.6 percent). In addition, his average fastball velocity of 89.8 mph was also the highest of his career. His high walk rate is a concern, and he is more likely to finish with an ERA north of 4.10 as a member of the rotation in 2012.

After years of living on the edge and turning his marginal stuff into solid results, Lannan finally fell over that cliff, posting a miserable first half before getting demoted to Double-A to get straightened out. He put up better numbers after his recall with a 3.42 ERA and 47:14 K:BB ratio in 11 starts, and the Nationals are hoping he returns to being his old reliable self, but we'd be very wary about Lannan repeating his 2010 struggles rather than his 2008-2009 successes.

The Nationals' default ace, Lannan gave up any pretense in 2009 of trying to strike batters out and instead just pounded the bottom of the strike zone and kept his defense busy. The approach has worked for two straight seasons now, and as long as the Nats keep a serviceable array of gloves behind him there's no reason to think he can't do it again.

Lannan might just be the poster boy for the value of an outstanding G/F split, as he pounded the bottom of the strike zone to earn nine wins on a terrible team and contributed solid fantasy ERA and WHIP despite the lack of anything else remotely noteworthy in his arsenal. His ugly strikeout, walk and home-run rates scream regression, but as long as the infield defense behind him remains OK, Lannan's capable of being adequate or better.

Lannan saw more of the Nationals organization than their roving fielding instructor in 2007, playing at four levels including the majors. The unheralded 2005 11th-round pick has an arsenal good enough to get out minor league hitters, but which proved to be not up to the task in Washington. The organization likes him, but unless he can find an out pitch his ceiling would appear to be as a swingman in the bigs.