{"id":27194,"date":"2019-12-09T16:39:58","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T21:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=27194"},"modified":"2019-12-09T16:42:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T21:42:07","slug":"washington-nationals-re-sign-stephen-strasburg-to-record-breaking-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/12\/09\/washington-nationals-re-sign-stephen-strasburg-to-record-breaking-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Nationals Re-Sign Stephen Strasburg to Record-Breaking Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Washington Nationals Re-Sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strasst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Strasburg<\/a> to Record-Breaking Deal<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Nationals<\/a> have re-signed starting pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strasst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Strasburg<\/a><\/strong> to a seven-year, $245 million contract. Strasburg&#8217;s deal surpasses\u00a0the previous high for a pitcher&#8217;s contract held by\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/priceda01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Price<\/a><\/strong> when he signed a seven-year, $217 million deal with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/boston-red-sox\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boston Red Sox<\/a>. Strasburg also has the highest annual average value, exceeding <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greinza01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zack Greinke<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s\u00a0$31.5 million. Jeff Passan was the first to report the agreement.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strasst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Strasburg<\/a>\u2019s deal with the Washington Nationals is for seven years and $245 million, a source tells ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1204126665590206464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 9, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/h2>\n<p>In 2019, Strasburg put together an 18-6 record, 3.32 ERA, 3.25 FIP, 1.04 WHIP, and 251 strikeouts in 209 innings pitched. He also finished 5-0 in the postseason and allowed just eight earned runs over 36.1 innings to help the Nationals win their first World Series title. As a result, he was named the World Series MVP. In his 10-year tenure with the Nationals, he has compiled a 112-58 record, 3.17 ERA, 2.96 FIP, 1.09 WHIP, and 1,695 strikeouts in 1,438.2 innings.<\/p>\n<h3>Nationals Outlook<\/h3>\n<p>After winning the World Series last season, the Nationals had some questions regarding the free agency of Strasburg and third-baseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rendoan01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Rendon<\/a><\/strong>. Now that the Nationals have locked up Strasburg, they will have to decide what to do about Rendon. At this point, it seems likely that Rendon will not be returning to Washington for the 2020 season. If that were to be the case, it would be the second straight season that Washington let a star position player walk. Last season it was<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/harpebr03.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bryce Harper<\/a><\/strong> leaving DC to head to the division rival <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/philadelphia-phillies\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This move emphasizes the Nationals&#8217; desire to have a strong rotation. Since <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Scherzer<\/a><\/strong> has just two years left on his contract and isn&#8217;t getting any younger, the Nationals signing of Strasburg appears to be the right decision. Losing a player like Rendon would certainly put a hole in the middle of the lineup, but the Nationals seem confident that they can find a suitable replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"xrwoppMYR1ZYbNxO34VLQw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1184293688\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xrwoppMYR1ZYbNxO34VLQw',sig:'22VFkSxSU84fiYccEk-2r_dvNpuaj7IFihPoHAg3o3s=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1184293688',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Nationals Re-Sign Stephen Strasburg to Record-Breaking Deal The Washington Nationals have re-signed starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg to a seven-year, $245 million contract. Strasburg&#8217;s deal surpasses\u00a0the previous high for a pitcher&#8217;s contract held by\u00a0David Price when he signed a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Boston Red Sox. Strasburg also has the highest annual average [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2924,"featured_media":27198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,2,35],"tags":[270,38],"class_list":["post-27194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nationals","category-featured","category-news","tag-stephen-strasburg","tag-washington-nationals"],"modified_by":"Aaron Cornett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}