The Nationals have two pitchers that will be on the free agency market this year in Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister.

It’s expected by many that the Nationals will likely lose Zimmermann on the market and not make an effort to get Fister back, which makes the following report kind of sketchy.

According to the Boston Globe, the buzz around Major League Baseball is that the Nationals could make right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg available in trades. We can see why the Nationals would use Strasburg in the exploring parts of trade talks though, as he has dealt with a lot of injuries during his Major League career.

From the Boston Globe’s report:

A lot of buzz that the re-tooling Nationals could make the 27-year-old  [Strasburg] available. The Nationals could also lose Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister, who was demoted to the bullpen, in free agency. Strasburg was limited to 23 starts with a left oblique strain but went 11-7 with a 3.46 ERA. He’s 54-37 with a 3.09 ERA over his career. The Scott Boras client would enter his final year of arbitration and become a free agent after 2016.

If the Nationals choose to retain ZImmermann and Fister, moving Strasburg would make more sense to me. Up until that happens, I still say they should hang onto Strasburg, who showed flashes of his old form at the end of the 2015 season.

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