MLB.com's Bill Ladson reports the Nationals and Chien-Ming Wang are in the "preliminary stages" of negotiations for a new contract. The Nationals have gotten just 56 1/3 innings from Wang over the past two seasons as he's worked his way back from shoulder problems, but must believe he's finally all the way back. All 56 1/3 of those innings have come in 2011, where Wang has posted a 4.31, ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 53.4 groundball percentage. Barring something unforeseen happening, he should be a part of the Nationals' 2012 rotation.