Stephen Strasburg’s baseball future remains in doubt and he has been shut down from all physical activities for a while due to "severe nerve damage," but the Washington Nationals GM remains in his corner and a supporter of the 2019 World Series MVP.
"It's unfortunate. He's not happy about it, but, I'm a Stras guy, man. I'm in his corner, always will be. And just hoping the best for him and he's gonna be around here for a long time, so we just want the best for him and hopefully, he gets back to some normalcy and then we'll see where it goes after that," Rizzo said on Wednesday during his weekly appearance with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
Rizzo said the club had "known about it for a little while that he was struggling to regain any baseball activities."
Back in April, the Nationals GM told 106.7 The Fan that the 34-year-old right-hander's issue was "a conglomerate of the injuries over the years and then you throw in the new thoracic outlet injury and it just has taken a large toll all over the course of the right side of his body" and called it "a slow, painstaking rehabilitation."
"He's trying to work his way back and that's the way we're gonna keep it," Rizzo told The Junkies in April. "We're going to make sure that he's got every avenue that he can for him to get better and see where he's at periodically through the season."
On Wednesday, Rizzo did not elaborate on any further timetable for Strasburg, but said he is "working hard to trying to get relief of that [back pain] and going to rehab pretty consistently and just trying to regain some functionality and then whatever happens from there happens from there."
On the mental side of things, Rizzo said he did not think Strasburg was "depressed or down in the dumps, but I think that he's bummed out that he can't be around his teammates and he can't help the baseball team."
"But I think that he's one of these athletes... you know these guys are competitors," Rizzo said. "He's competing right now to getting healthy again and get him back into it and he's got a good family support system with his internal family, he's got a good family support system with us as a ballclub and I think that he's going to grind through this and be fine at the end of the day."
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