1. Bryce Harper
2. Anthony Rendon
3. Brad Peacock
4. A.J. Cole
5. Brian Goodwin
6. Alex Meyer
7. Matt Purke
8. Sammy Solis
9. Tom Milone
10. Stephen Lombardozzi
11. Derek Norris
12. Chris Marrero
13. Cole Kimball
14. Eury Perez
15. Robbie Ray

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Rizzo placed his primary focus as the offseason began on free agent Mark Buehrle. Buehrle met all of the above criteria and seemed like an ideal solution to Rizzo’s search. Buehrle has pitched 200+ innings in each of the past 11 seasons. He’s certainly experienced, having started 365 career regular season games and 4 more in the postseason. He’s pitched in four All Star Games, won three Gold Glove Awards, and has a World Series title under his belt. And he’s a lefty. He spurned the Nationals, instead following the higher paycheck and his former manager to Miami.

The “next best option” on the free agent market would likely have been C.J. Wilson. Wilson has pitched 200+ innings in each of the past 2 seasons, after converting from the bullpen to the rotation prior to the start of the 2010 season. He’s made at least 33 starts in each of the past two seasons, adding 9 more postseason starts. He’s also a lefty. The Nationals elected not to pursue Wilson (smartly, I might add) because his contract demands were reportedly going to be too high for the organization to seriously consider. Wilson ended up signing a lucrative free agent contract with the Angels.

Once the Winter Meetings concluded, it seemed that Rizzo would instead need to focus his efforts on acquiring his coveted lefty via trade. There was some speculation that the team could simply stand pat and maintain their rotation depth as the season began. There was even some belief that the organization might be better off without a big named starting pitcher acquisition. But those thoughts never seemed realistic because Rizzo had to have his left-handed innings eating starter to add to the team’s rotation.

Image courtesy: masnsports.com

This afternoon it would seem that Rizzo finally landed the left-handed starter he’s been pining for all offseason, acquiring Gio Gonzalez from the Oakland Athletics. In news first reported by Keith Law via Twitter, he traded four of the Nationals’ top prospects in order to complete the deal. Rizzo is hopefully happy with the deal. I’d like to not be so blunt about this, but there really is no way to avoid stating this directly – I’m not. Let me explain why.

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The Nationals might have the opposite problem. They may, in fact, have too much pitching, if there ever was such a thing, although most of it is in the minor leagues. The current projections for the 2012 rotation are as follows:

1. Strasburg
2. Zimmermann
3. Lannan
4. Wang
5. Detwiler/Milone/Peacock

This is if the Nats don’t land one an ace via free agency or trade. Mark Buehrle is now in Miami and C.J. Wilson is heading to Los Angeles, so the chances of bringing an ace to D.C. have decreased. The only ace-caliber pitcher that could possibly go to Washington at this point would be Gio Gonzalez, but looking at Oakland’s price tag, that seems highly unlikely. In the event that the Nationals did land an ace-caliber pitcher, that would mean that yet another one of John Lannan, Chien-Ming Wang, Ross Detwiler, Tom Milone, and Brad Peacock are out of the rotation. Obviously the talented Jordan Zimmermann and 2009 #1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg are locks for next year, so they won’t move.

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