Stephen Strasburg was a beast for the 2019 Washington Nationals, going 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA and pitching an NL high 209 innings. He was then even better in the postseason, going 5-0 with a 1.98 ERA and winning two of the biggest games of October: the NL Wild Card Game against Milwaukee, and Game 6 of the World Series with the Nats facing elimination in their home park.
He opted out of his seven-year, $175 million deal after that season and ended up with a new seven-year, $245 million deal, adding three years and $145 million to what remained on his old deal.
Sadly, that’s the high point of the 2020s for Strasburg’s tenure with the Nats, as various injuries – the latest a stress reaction in his ribs related to last year’s Thoracic Outlet Syndrome surgery – have limited him to less than 50 total innings (MLB or minors) in the last three seasons.
“I talked to him briefly [Monday], and, you know, he’s a bit down,” Nats manager Davey Martinez said Tuesday about Strasburg’s latest IL stint. “He wants to figure this out. He desperately wants to figure this out and see what’s going to happen, what’s going to transpire next.”
Strasburg made five starts last season before being shut down with a neck strain, which turned into the TOS surgery, and he missed the first two months of 2022 rehabbing. He looked like he was on the right path after three strong rehab outings and a rocky but promising MLB return last week.
And then came discomfort during a weekend bullpen, leading to his 15th career IL stint.
Related
“We all hurt for him because he worked his butt off to get back and try to help us,” Martinez said Tuesday. “We were so excited that he was out there. It was something else to see him out there pitching again so I hope and pray that he comes back — who knows when, there is no timetable — but that he can come back and pitch again for us.”
Now 33, every day Strasburg misses and every injury or setback he has brings wonder if he’ll ever pitch again, let alone be the same. The Nationals can hope, perhaps, that he has a second act a la the Yankees’ CC Sabathia, whose knees forced him to become more of a finesse pitcher in the final years of his big contract and ended up being a better than league average starter for a couple seasons.
With the Nationals’ rotation currently in shambles – in addition to Strasburg, Joe Ross (Tommy John surgery) and Anibal Sanchez (neck impingement) are on the 60-day IL, Josh Rogers is on the 15-day IL, and both Aaron Sanchez and Joan Adon have been outrighted off the MLB roster – it would have been huge to have even an average Strasburg in the group.
Instead, his mega-deal looks like another bust in the making…but that will never mean, at least to Martinez, that the righty didn’t deserve it.
"For me, he deserved that contract, he really did,” Martinez said. “You look what he did, if it wasn’t for him we don’t win a world championship. Nobody could’ve predicted what was going to happen. Like I said, I just hope that the results, it’s something that’s positive from the next visit to the doctor’s and then we can figure out what’s next for him.”
Related
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN