Stephen Strasburg hasn’t pitched in over a month, and the Nationals transferred him to the 60-day injured list last week. That officially ruled him out until mid-August, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that he’s likely to miss the remainder of the 2022 season dealing with a nerve issue.
It’s not a huge surprise, as the Nats have previously suggested they feared he’s suffered a recurrence of the thoracic outlet syndrome that cut his 2021 campaign short. That necessitated surgery last July, although Heyman writes that Strasburg fortunately will not need to undergo another procedure. Nevertheless, it seems even a non-surgical rehab won’t afford the veteran righty an opportunity to make it back to the mound this year.
It’s the third consecutive lost season for Strasburg, who has been limited to eight appearances since the 2019 campaign wrapped up. He missed most of the abbreviated 2020 season due to carpal tunnel syndrome. After pitching just twice that year, he made five starts before being shut down by TOS last season. Strasburg spent about 11 months working his way back to the big leagues, returning for a 4 2/3-inning against the Marlins on June 9. While he came out of that start feeling fine, he suffered renewed rib discomfort during a bullpen session a few days later.
Injuries to Strasburg are among the reasons the past three seasons have played out disastrously for the Nationals. The three-time All-Star was in peak form in 2019, tossing 209 innings of 3.32 ERA ball during the regular season. He continued to shine during the postseason, helping the Nats to a championship and winning World Series MVP honors. Washington kept him around on a seven-year, $245MM free agent contract the ensuing winter.
While it was easy to understand the Nationals’ desire to keep Strasburg around coming off such an excellent season, that signing looks like an unfortunate major misstep in retrospect. Not only have the injuries generally kept him off the mound, he’s looked nothing like his old self during his limited action. Strasburg averaged north of 94 MPH on his fastball in 2019, but he’s worked in the 90-92 MPH range over the past three years. Coupled with the Max Scherzer trade and Patrick Corbin’s massive performance downturn, the excellent top-end starting pitching that anchored the Nats perennial contenders of the last decade has abandoned them. Washington’s rotation has an MLB-worst 5.74 ERA through the season’s unofficial first half.
Strasburg, 34 on Wednesday, remains under contract for another four years. He’s due $35MM annually through 2026, although a good portion of that salary is deferred with interest.
Shocker
Worst contract ever?
Na, Chris Davis has that one locked up for a long time.
Nah, this is worse. At least Davis was margainly useful at the start of the contract. Stras has barely played and not looked good when he has. This is the worst contract.
Yep… by a mile. Nats were a competitive team at the time of his signing. Strasburg being hurt changed the direction of the franchise.
Jason Heyward has been hot garbage on the Cubs from the moment the ink dried.
J-Hey of the Cubs on line one disagrees…
Davis had a 110 OPS+ in the first year of his deal. Stras led the league in wins (I know they don’t matter, but getting more than everyone in the league still says something) and finished 5th in the Cy Young. Both crapped out after that. I still gotta say Davis was worse simply because insurance is probably paying a big chunk of Strasburg’s deal.
@Yankees – The Orioles were also a competitive team at the time of the signing. Easy to forget that finished 2nd in the East in 2016. Davis being utterly useless changed their direction as well.
I agree. Nats knew the risk giving this man that much money when they did. I would have saved it up for Harper before he left town. Just a horrible decision by WASH management to invest in a guy that has had injury problems ever since being drafted.
@DarkSide830: Nah, they are different. Strasburg didn’t tank. His fall off is physical. The Davis fall off, and in by no means is this a criticism towards Chris, was not physical but mental. He was very productive when his salary blended in with teammates. When he got top dollar, the pressure to perform was too overwhelming. Not all physically gifted athletes have the DNA to perform at there best when the money comes their way. And Chris is not the first to succumb to this. In recent memory, Adam Dunn comes to mind during his time with the White Sox and Carl Crawford after leaving Tampa Bay. Anyone agree? Have other examples?
Davis was margainly useful at the start of the contract.
==================================
I doubt it. Davis has a -2.7 bWAR for $161M.
Strasburg has a -.05. so far.
The difference between the two contracts is $84M. Using $8M as the cost per WAR in free agency, Strasburg needs only (10.4-2.2) 8.2 WAR over the next 4 years. I’d make a modest wager that he can do so.
In addition, the Nats probably carry some insurance on him. Throwing 31.1 IPs in 3 years might get them some reimbursement. Whereas you cannot buy insurance against your player simply sucking.
See the difference between awful contracts and strasburgs (at the moment) is that people still want strasburg to play… speaking as a Cub fan, I couldn’t be happier that Heyward is on the IL
There is still a chance that Strasburg can play. He spent 8 years as a top-tier pitcher. “If” he can pitch, he’d probably be quite good. Guys like Heyward & Davis couldn’t play anymore, and no amount of health was going to change that.
Please don’t forget Dexter Foulup or Hamilton of the LAA.
I wish there was a stat of all the big contracts that failed, 80%, higher? So lets go pay Soto $.5 bllion Ughhhh. Some fool will do it.
The best example of Scott Boras Absolutely swindling a business owner, prime example
I respect Scott Boras tremendously. However……
He has absolutely ruined the careers of GM’s that signed his clients for high salaries. Many of his players didn’t produce much and ate up such a large percentage of the payroll budget that the GM couldn’t field a decent team. Subsequently the team had to go into a rebuild to wait out the bad contracts……after the GM was fired. .
Then we get to the owners……
The A-Rod signing resulted in the owner having to bring in John Hart as GM, primarily to get A-Rod off the team. That cost the owner money anyway as he had to pay a part of the contract, as well not receiving anything resembling fair value in the trade. The owner had to sell the franchise (don’t cry for him, he made a far bigger fortune with a communication company).
Now we have stories floating around that the Nationals owners are exploring selling. They could have denied those rumors, but haven’t. And another story slipped out the other day that the Nationals are moving on from Soto as $440m is not acceptable to him (and probably shouldn’t be). What happens if they tie up that amount of money in him and he suffers a major injury that doesn’t go away? (Fool me once shame on you…..) Heck, Boras will be expecting a solid team around Soto along with opt-out clauses guaranteeing that if he stays healthy and hitting (he’s a poor fielder) he can leave for yet more money; but of he gets hurt like Strasburg they’ll have to pay his full salary……limiting what sort of team can be put on the field for years.
No one can accuse the Lerner family of being “cheap”, or of not running a first class organization. But there comes a point where it’s just not feasible to stay in a business anymore. The small market teams have it right – stay away from more than one or two long-term contracts, and even those have to be reasonable in years and dollars.
This take is absolutely hot garbage…
First, let’s start with A-Rod.. who’s massive contract could not have worked out any better. A-Rod was an absolute monster during his first contract, his WORST WAR for a season was 4.5. What got the rangers gm fired was NOT ARod, it was awful contracts to chan ho park (arguably the worst contract ever) rusty greer and Zimmerman that tied his hands and forced them to trade Rodriguez. They also received Soriano back in that deal… if memory serves he was pretty alright.
Then to discuss the nationals and boras… last time I checked boras was max scherzers agent as well and that had to go down as one of the best free agent signings of all time (huge money deals).
The lerners have been rumored to be selling since 2017 because Ted lerners health was bad and his kids were not 100 percent committed to owning the team. It was said at the time that as long as Ted was still alive, the kids wouldn’t sell.
Also, Juan Soto isn’t a “poor fielder” he’s been bad this season but last year he was +5 OAA, -2 in 2020 and +7 in 2019.
One can complain Soto turned down 440 million but the fact is it was under a 30 million AAV and it was terribly back loaded because the Lerners want to reap the rewards and let someone else pay for it on the back end.
Players, if they are thinking about the union at all, have to consider AAV because that is how arbitration raises and other player salaries are figured.
drasco036;
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I never said A-Rod was a bad player in Texas. The fact is that they were not wining with him and his salary was eating up so much of the payroll budget that “their hands were tied”.
And I’m fully aware that Mr. Boras is Max Scherzers’ agent. I’m also aware that The Lerner family has had a long relationship with Scott Boras and his clients, and got to the point with the Bryce Harper contract negotiations that they never even returned calls to negotiate with Boras (according to Mr. Boras) when Harper hit free agency. They simply could not afford his salary along with those of other players they were paying.
As for the current situation with Soto – Mr. Boras said publicly last year that Soto would like to stay in DC, but would need to see the team put around him before he would sign. What the Nationals have at this point is next to nothing. So they floated a $440m proposal which was turned down as being light. Now……
Do you know what a BUDGET is? Do you know that businesses big and small routinely do budget analysis in advance, looking at best case and worst case future revenue streams? Has it occurred to you that the Nationals have few good young players, a poor farm system, and if Soto finds $440m to be light there is no way the Nationals can afford to pay him then go out and sign free agents to compete and draw enough revenue to break even?……and people are not in business to break even…..they can always invest their money in tax free guaranteed bonds and make a profit.
Early in 2021 when asked to choose a long-term player between Acuna, Jr., Tatis, Jr. and Soto, I took Soto. And the fact is he’s NOT a very good OF. But I figured they could hide him in LF. He’s consistent, a smart ballplayer and a team player. The other 2 guys are hot dogs, lack baseball IQ, and not surprisingly got themselves injured (for which they will have physical limitations for the rest of their careers) deciding to play 162 games as if they were sprinting in a marathon.
Scott Boras gets top dollar for his clients. That’s fine. But the problem is that a team cannot commit to a long-term excessive contract with one (or two) player(s), and then keep players around them that are quality and due raises each year. We’re back to: 1) baseball being a sport where a batter can only hit once every 9 guys and a starting pitcher can only pitch once every 5 games….meaning that a winning team needs lots of good players; and 2) cash flow and a budget.
You don’t think Scott Boras was called in long before the Nationals shopped Scherzer in 2022? You think he wasn’t aware of the situation and wasn’t involved with Scherzer in accepting the team he would be traded to?
I think you’re right about the younger Lerner’s, which is what I wrote. These are extremely wealthy people, and don’t need the daily hassles that come with owning a MLB team. They can, and do, make money elsewhere.
Bobby Bonilla
Mo Vaughn
Mike Hampton and Barry Zito are asking if they are jokes to you? 🙂
This guy is toast.
very burnt toast
It’s a shame cause he had an outside HOF shot
4 more years. Gulp!
Would be interesting to see if the nats can attach this contract to a soto deal
interesting thought. not many teams can afford that, maybe if nats pay half like the sox did with Price they can get it done. would lower the prospect cost on Soto by a fair amount though
They’d still get a haul, especially if this happens sooner rather than later.
Not any team close to or above the LTT. I can’t actually think of any team which would take Strasburg and all of his money owed and Soto for a PTBNL. For $35M/yr., I’d take my chances drafting/signing on the int’l market.
That would be wild
Not the whole thing, and the fans would crucify ownership if they traded Soto just for salary relief on Stras.
But I can envision a top 5 MLB prospect and another top ten org prospect going for Soto, Stras, and half his salary.
Doing so would significantly reduce the return and it probably wouldn’t be worth it for the Nats. Attaching Corbin is a possibility though since his deal is much smaller and he actually still pitches, although not very well
That contract brings such a high negative value that an attachment would bring down the return significantly. It would completely change the nature of the trade.
Full no-trade
Starsburg’s contract is significantly worse than Corbin’s. Maybe they’ll attach Corbin with Soto, but adding Strasburg would dampen the prospect haul too much.
I’ve thought about this a lot, going back to last year when Stras was hurt and the Nats looked incredibly weak, and San Diego still keeps coming to mind as the best landing spot–Strasburg’s hometown and a team that could be willing to take a decent chunk of his bad contract in order to get Soto…
That works great in the NHL for draft picks.
Chuck Fletcher on line one to trade Gauthier for Stras’s contract.
Make him the closer for a team that has a run for the championship!
Perhaps for your local softball team as he’s not pitching in the majors this year.
The Mets could take on $20 mil and not have to part with Baty, Ramirez or Alvarez. They could offer Mauricio, one of this years 1st rounders, Allan, Peterson or Megill, and 1 or 2 other prospects the Nats value highly. A lot of times teams value players differently and there probably are a few the Nats value higher than New York. I doubt anything happens this season but stranger things have happened.
Expect the Nats to devastate the Mets or any division rival’s farm system.
Yeah that’s the one thing I’m nearly sure of, he’s out of division u less all top thirty move
This contract isn’t just a misstep in retrospect, it was a major misstep when it was offered. Horrendous contract.
While it was easy to understand the Nationals’ desire to keep him? No. It was very hard to understand. I was shocked by this signing. A pitcher with a long injury history and he gets a seven year contract. Ridiculous. I still say they could have afforded to keep Bryce Harper if they had just let Strasburg walk. I think someone figured they couldn’t sign Bryce Harper because they wanted to have the money for Strasburg one year down the road. That is absolutely insane. Now we are going to see articles saying he will be ready for spring training. Sure but he’ll probably get hurt in spring training. This signing alone is grounds for Mike Rizzo’s termination. He also has so many other screw ups as well but he was just extended. Another one I don’t understand.. Does Stephen Strasburg want to be remembered as one of the worst contracts in history? Does he just want to collect his money while he is hurt. He will get hurt time after time the next four years. He should just retire. I’m sure the millions you have made and will continue to make can’t be spent in several lifetimes.
There’s surely much, much more to all of this than “Rizzo is stupid and should be fired!” and “Boras the genius wins again!”. MLB is probably one enormous racket, with all owners, all GM’s, most or all agents, the union, local politicians, the commissioner for sure, and even many of the players in on a massive grift, one whose complexities you probably wouldn’t believe and couldn’t fathom anyway.
Flags fly forever.
What a dog. Always injured unless its a contract year in which he is magically healthy
People keep bringing up the Mets and the rebalancing of the schedule like Soto wouldn’t help a division rival, for 162 games, for 10+ years.
That would make the Braves and Mets two massive roadblocks to the playoffs, when Washington could ship him to the AL, where there are teams with much better farm systems.
Possibly, but any acquiring team will decimate their farm system to acquire him and you have to think that they’ll have their sights set on an extension to pay the king’s ransom, which could put a massive financial strain on future moves. Yes, he’s that good, but the amount of players you’re giving up to acquire him AND possibly re-sign him (when that money could go elsewhere) — he could also be a Trojan horse.
Tough position to be in as a GM. So hard to justify saying away from a guy because he MIGHT be on the cusp of falling off a cliff. Fresh off of a WS chip leading the majors with 18 wins. How do you know whether or not to extend a guy? I mean history says that giving any 30 yo player 8 years and a ton of money is going to probably end with some bad years towards the end of the contract but unless the medicals show something, how do you predict less than 10 games in 3 seasons? Yeesh.
You can’t. It’s the risk you take when you want to win. Where would the Yankees be right now without Geritt Cole? Or the Dodgers sans Kershaw? Or the Red Sox without Sale?
I knew he would get hurt time after time. Thinking of Cyndi Lauper now. If I knew it, how come Mike didn’t?
wouldent insurance pay him
They likely bought insurance, but it’s not cheap and it only covers part of a big contract. If a player gets injured during the existing policy, just like house insurance, renewal costs for the next portion of the contract can/always jumps….if they even offer that player coverage.
Typically high-risk positions like pitcher are the top-end of premiums(6%-10% of covered value), and the coverage is only for 2-4yr at a time, depending on the company and total exposure in $$. They all have a waiting period, typically 30-60 days. Some may also have exclusions for player specific pre-existing injuries, especially for guys who have previously been injured and are otherwise uninsurable. Payouts may also be a %, depending on how the coverage was structured. There are only a handful of companies that deal in these types of plans, so price shopping is limited.
2 great (1 of them was barely great) seasons for his entire career- 2017 and 2019- and nothing worth mentioning aside from those 2 seasons. 30 WAR for the career. Didn’t live up to the expectations to say the least and the contract was stupid and very player-favorable from the beginning.
So most of Strasburg’s salary will be deferred? Does that mean there will not only be a Bobby Bonilla day. But there will be a Steven Strasburg day too?
No he will earn 80 million from 2027-2029.
Nats should have let him walk after the WS win. Dude was never going to live up to that contract.
When I read that he’s due 35 Mill annually, I said outloud Omg…and I’m a Reds fan, but that sucks fir this organization..
Like a titanic struggle
Three years in to the new deal and all the Nationals have gotten out of it is 1 Win in 8 Starts
Washington trying to lump Strasburg and Corbin w/Soto and get a high prospect and 3-4 mid level low minor talent. Whoever trades with Washington should get a 2 hour window to extend him. 10/$350M would probably work.
He will tattoo Yankee Stadium.
Soto turned down 15/$440M so why would he accept less guaranteed money? And lumping in Strasburg alone makes the value for Soto moot for the next two to four years.
Don’t you mean a two day window? He will want more than ten years. They offered Judge seven and Soto is 6.5 years younger.
The Nationals don’t even want Corbin or Strasburg’s contracts why in the world would someone else want them just for the chance to have to pay Soto a half a billion dollars on top of that?
Yeah, I didn’t expect him to return for a while now. I guess I should have reported it at the time. Then again, I’m not a reporter so who would have cared. But also, it was kind of common sense so who’d have thought I’d have been wrong lol
Soto will come with Stephen. Any one interested?
As a Nationals fan from Day 1, you take the good with the bad. The positive moments Stras brought to the table will far outweigh the albatross of a contract he signed after a dominating playoff run. If anything, it gave my father and I something to care about as our lives headed down different paths as we both grew older.
I remember watching his first game against the Pirates. I remember cursing Rizzo when he shut him down and cost the Nationals a shot at the WS. I remember flying to LA and seeing Harper’s first game with Stras on the mound. I remember watching Stras deal in the playoffs when the Nationals won the World Series. The Nationals had a choice between Rendon and Stras. and they signed Stras knowing they had already gotten the TJ surgery out of the way.
Stras’ most recent surgery is one of the toughest to come back from as a pitcher. From the fan perspective, it’s disappointing. He has all the tools to be a GOAT. However his durability has always been an issue. He’s been a class act on and off the field. I have a nine-month old son. I would have no problems if he emulated Stras’ character on and off the field. I highly doubt we’ll see Stras pitch again… Thanks for the WS run Stephen… take care of your health sport.
He did better than my favorite brewer Pitcher, Ben Sheets! He was a CHINA Doll with HOF stuff Too!
If he sticks around until the end of the contract, the albatross will far outweigh whatever he did when he was not hurt.
I’m other news: grass is green.
Him and Chris Sale… two was injured peas in a pod. SMH.
His days in the pros over? We’ll probably see a shell of him return and eventually he’ll “retire”
When he does return, he’ll have to reinvent himself as a finesse pitcher. His once blazing fastball is long gone. Maybe he can become a knuckleballer or submarine pitcher in someone’s bullpen. Otherwise, he is finished
Wonder what the insurance limits are on strasburgs contract ? Nationals will prob never be able to buy insurance again lolz
I agree with the need for insurance! Always available for enough money!
Good thing Rizzo decided to sit Strasburg after 160 innings in 2012, otherwise he would probably be injury prone.
And otherwise the Nationals probably wouldn’t have won the 2019 WS either.
It’s re-signing Strasburg after he opted out of his existing contract, on the heels of his 2019 WS MVP, that was obviously a poor decision in hindsight. Clearly that was ownership’s decision, although the GM was certainly involved too.
They could have traded for a starting pitcher, put Strasburg in the bullpen and gone farther than they did. Then again, incompetent Davey Johnson was around. He had Drew Storen pitch three days in a row. The first was in a lopsided game that was lost. He couldn’t get the third out against St. Louis. Hiring him was another of Mike Rizzo’s screw ups.
@believeitornot Was Johnson always incompetent?
Even if he could pitch later this season, why would the Nationals risk it? They’ll finish in last place either way.
Not saying he’d pitch in September if his team were in contention. But for the Nationals it’s all long term planning at this point. They’re on the hook for basically the rest of Strasburg’s career (whether it’s already done or not). Need to focus on getting anything more out of him long term, however remote the possibility.
Chris Davis 2.0, except he’s a pitcher
Sad. They limited this guy from the start and it accomplished absolutely nothing. He is just always injured.
Was it Strausburg the Nats babied when he started his career? He never pitched past a pitch count no matter how well he was doing. Just shows you can never predict how arms will respond.
Next up, Max Scherzer !!!!
His great grandchildren will have good lives (unless they screw it up and of course the federal government will get their cut of an inheritance) based on 1 season’s performance.
This is a bit of a double burn for the Nats as they moved Harper and gave the money to Strasburg. The Nats tried to get creative but Harper didn’t want to have his own ‘Bobby Bonilla’ day.
The bright side is Cleveland would love to be in this situation if it meant they won the series in 2019 like the Nats.
He is not expected to return at all period.
Strausburg knew his health was big liability and took a deal instead of risking it before free agency. .. not even Boras could talk him out of it.. smart man
Yet they never learn.
Strasburg and Corbin are two awful contracts. If Nats can include one with Soto and take a smaller prospect package and few smaller contracts back maybe a deal that benefits both clubs can work out.
In the case of the Yanks if Nats sent Soto and Corbin for following prospects and players:
Oswald Peraza (#2)
Everson Periera (#10)
Luis Medina (#11)
With Joey Gallo (10m free agent after this season) and Aaron Hicks (10m with four more years of team control 40m) going to Nats
Yanks could stay under the current cap with this deal this season. Next season is another story when they try resign Judge.
A trade like this is more than fair to both teams
Nats are not getting Dominguez or Volpe but they are getting the second best organizational ss and outfielder plus a young electric armed pitcher.
It’s semi-interesting. Forgetting about the 2022 salary, the NYY add $60M/2 for Corbin and lose $30M/3 for Hicks. So they add $30M, but could still get something useful out of Corbin, who occasionally pitches well.
That said, if I were the Nats, I wouldn’t package salary with Soto. Just get the best package of prospects, and hope that Strasburg & Corbin can give you some mediocre pitching.
Yankees fans come up with the most ridiculous trade offers I’ve ever seen. And I like the Yankees.
There’s more substance than anything you ever post.
This is why teams need good injury insurance on any huge contract. Remember when the Mets got million back from the David Wright
injury? Pay now or pay later and pay and pay and pay!
@UWPSUPERFAN77 You’re talking as if player insurance is easy to obtain, reasonably priced, and provides full loss-coverage. None of the above!
$105 million for 30 IP in the past 3 years.
Oh well
Lolz