"Rizzo indicated that acquiring Jackson makes the Nationals no more likely to trade one of their starting pitchers, such as John Lannan or Ross Detwiler. Now, saying otherwise would hurt his leverage if he did discuss a trade with another team. But he called acquiring Jackson and the ability to turn a pitcher into a bat "mutually exclusive."

"We're certainly always open to making a deal if it makes sense for us," Rizzo said. "We did not acqire Edwin Jackson to trade another starting pitcher. In spring training or before spring training, if a deal comes up we can't pass up that positively impacts our ball club, we'd certainly be open-minded to it.""