Nationals veteran Stephen Strasburg’s stretch of brutal injury luck continues as The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports that the right-hander has been shut down from all physical activity since late April due to what was described to Dougherty as “severe” nerve damage. It had previously been reported back in February that Strasburg had suffered a setback in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome and the club had no timetable for his return to a major league mound. Dougherty notes that doubt is “increasing” that the 34-year-old former ace will ever be able to pitch again.
It’s a devastating continuation to the health woes that have plagued Strasburg all throughout his career. Seen as one of the most talented pitchers in the history of the draft when he was selected by the Nationals as the first overall pick in 2009, Strasburg has showcased immense talent throughout his career, but has been plagued by injuries ever since Tommy John surgery limited him to just 92 innings of work in his 2010 rookie season. Despite that surgery robbing him of his premium velocity that at times topped 100 mph as a rookie, Strasburg managed to put together a phenomenal eight-year stretch from 2012-2019, posting a 3.21 ERA and 3.03 FIP in 1,346 2/3 innings of work, though he eclipsed 180 innings in a season just three times due to continued injury woes.
Strasburg signed a seven-year, $245MM contract with the Nationals during the 2019-20 offseason, just weeks after leading the Nationals to the first World Series championship in franchise history with a dominant postseason where he posted a 1.98 ERA in 36 1/3 innings of work to go along with a top-5 finish in Cy Young award voting for his regular season performance. While his dominating 2019 season, history with the team, and pedigree as a former first overall draft pick, Cy Young finalist, and three-time All Star justified the expenditure to an extent, Strasburg’s already-lengthy injury history offered plenty of reason for concern from the moment the deal was signed.
Those concerns have borne out in what has essentially been a worst-case-scenario for the club over the past four seasons, as Strasburg has made just eight starts in that time while the franchise has entered a deep rebuild. Even during the rare moments when Strasburg has managed to return to a big league mound, the results have left much to be desired, as the aforementioned eight starts yielded a whopping 6.89 ERA, 39% below league average by measure of ERA+.
To make matters worse, Dougherty reports that the club lacks any sort of disability insurance of Strasburg’s megadeal, and it’s appearing increasingly unlikely that the Nationals will ever get any sort of significant return on their investment. While Strasburg was lightly rehabbing at Nationals Park as recently as earlier this season, Dougherty notes that a return to attempting to throw off a mound resulted in Strasburg being limited to exclusively lower-half exercise, but even that proved to be too much by the end of April.
Looking to the future, Dougherty notes that Strasburg won’t get the green light to rehab again until and unless his team of doctors believe an additional attempt to return to baseball would not impact his long-term well-being more than his current health issues already do. Last September, Strasburg acknowledged the difficulties of his injury situation, telling the Washington Post in an interview that he didn’t know “if [he’ll] ever be able to do this consistently on a major league mound again.”
Still in the midst of the rebuild that kicked off mid-way through the 2021 season, the Nationals have relied on a combination of youngsters MacKenzie Gore, Josiah Gray, and Jake Irvin along with veterans like Trevor Williams, Patrick Corbin, and Chad Kuhl in their rotation so far in the 2023 campaign while consensus top 100 prospect Cade Cavalli joins Strasburg on the injured list, rehabbing from an early-career Tommy John surgery of his own.
Very unfortunate. In his prime, Strasburg was one of the most entertaining pitchers to watch. If he can never play again, I hope he can at least recover well enough to be pain-free in retirement.
Very well said
myaccount – Totally agree! It’s a very sad situation, but not unexpected when it comes to TOS …. recovering from it is nearly impossible.
At least he went out as an MVP on a World Championship team.
There’s a crazy rumor that this contract was signed with zero insurance
Why is that crazy? It’s says it right there in the article. Also, it’s been widely reported, for years now, that insuring these contracts is often impossible and in many of those instances when it is possible, the insurance is so costly as to not be worth it.
Fans are so naive thinking that all these contracts are insured. What company in their right mind would have insured Strasburg’s contract, given his injury history? The average fan looked at that contract and wondered what the Nats were thinking. You think a modern insurance company with a team of smart people and mountain of data is somehow less informed than the average MLB fan?
A disability insurance. That is an insurance in case there is a medical report that basically states the player is unfit indefinitely for his job.
That isn’t such a weird insurance. How many baseball players have to stop their career because of an injury while still on a team? Not that many.
It’s not a rumor, it’s a fact. In 2019 the Nationals decided not to take out an insurance policy on Strasburgs contract because the premium would have been too expensive given his age and injury history.
It’s not uncommon for teams not to take out policies on pitchers due to the high premiums and the issue that a lot of insurance companies won’t insure a pitchers elbow or shoulder, especially if there is an injury history attached to it.
I can think of Fielder and Belle off the top of my head.
That’s really unfathomable that they had zero insurance on that contract. Or any contract of that size. Who’s brainstorm was that? Wow.
The assumption is that premium was ridiculous and the insurance company would not cover his elbow or shoulder really making the need moot.
That’s a bummer, man. I really enjoyed watching him pitch, truly was a phenomenal talent.
If teams are no longer training players who can pitch and more focused on players that throw hard, why are they signing players to mega deals? Throwers don’t know how to pitch and burn out quickly. Also, why didn’t they have insurance?
The Washington Post article will answer your question about insurance.
I hear you in principle about thrower vs pitcher, but if you think Strasburg is not a high IQ technical pitcher with finesse, you may not have had the pleasure of watching him in the post season.
Insurance companies are not in business to lose money.
Both premiums and deductibles are incredibly high. With very few MLB players able to stay healthy for a full season anymore, I have no idea what companies will insure an MLB player today.
If you want to know why pitchers want to throw hard, read the excerpt below:
Strasburg managed to put together a phenomenal eight-year stretch from 2012-2019, posting a 3.21 ERA and 3.03 FIP
Steele ended last season looking like an above-average, mid-rotation or better starter over 24 starts, posting a 3.18 ERA, 3.20 FIP
Throw hard, you’re phenomenal, be an effective pitcher without the “electric” stuff, you’re a mid-rotation starter in many people’s eyes.
Great point.
While I think there is and can be a link between physical and emotional in one’s body, that is pretty short-sided to assume that is the cause of injury in any particular case.
I don’t think Bo Jackson destroying his hip bc he was so incredibly powerful had much to do with emotions or anything other than his muscles generated such force that his supporting ligaments and tendons were overwhelmed.
Jackson’s hip was mainly because he got tackled in an awkward way.
Jackson had a genetic degenerative disease that was diagnosed after his injury.
His injury was Jackson’s own fault in hindsight, a defender had one leg wrapped up and Jackson tried to explode out of it which resulted in him screwing up his hip. It really wasn’t awkward, it was Jackson just trying to do too much.
Strasburg’s stretch was phenomenal because it occurred over almost 1500 IP. Steele’s similar career quality so far is only about 1/6 of that stretch; if he keeps this up for a while, he’ll start seeing the talk about him upgraded in accolades too. A lot of pitchers can put together an impressive 200 or so IP stretch, but the typical ups and downs of pitching have taught us to not gush too much too quickly.
Or do you think people didn’t break out the superlatives thesaurus for the likes of Greg Maddux?
It has nothing to do with duration and if you think I’m lying about baseball having an electric bias, look at Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks was a top 5 pitcher in the league in terms of ERA but never was spoken as such. Heck, after two bad years people say he’s done, no way the Cubs pick up his 14.5 million (16 million 1.5 buyout) but Thor got 13 million from the Dodgers and never put together a run like Hendricks, why? The argument is always “he has Ace potential or TOR stuff” why don’t writers have the same faith in a guy who was an actual Ace? You never hear how Hendricks has “ace” stuff but yet there he was, being an Ace.
Greg Maddux cemented his legacy well before mlb was velocity obsessed.
Yeah he only threw 84 mph and didn’t ruin his arm.
Kyle Hendricks had a top-5 ERA once, in 2016. That season, his FIP was a full run higher than his ERA. He’s a good pitcher, but he’s not an ace and never has been.
His first 7 years he had an accumulative ERA of 3.03 and he never was an Ace because he out pitched his projections?
Btw, like I said, that 3.03 ERA is in fact top five over that time frame but I guess being a top 5 pitcher isn’t an ace in your book.
Maybe., it’s time to retire
When he was healthy he was terrific
Plus, he has a World Series ring and he was a big part of that, he was the WS MVP, not just a hanger on
He has $245,000,000 reasons to not retire.
That money is guaranteed. He will get it regardless. With no insurance the Nationals are in a very bad situation. Probably couldn’t get the coverage due to the long history of injury. Feel bad for Strasburg was a tremendous talent.
You Do NOT get your money if you retire my friend. Why do you think Detroit’s Miggy is still playing?
No, if you officially retire you forfeit the remaining part of the contract. That was part of the issue that had to be worked out at the end of David Wright’s career.
Somebody a few years back retired and voluntarily left several million that he could have gotten for one more season on his contract; I want to say it was Michael Cuddyer.
Gil Meche
It was Gil Meche. 2011.
Gil Meche
Meche also, but Cuddyer retired in 2015 after year one of a 2-year contract with the Mets.
Yep, he has to go through the motions of trying to recover until the contract expires in order to get paid.
When Prince Fielder was no longer able to play for the Rangers, all three parties involved (Fielder, Rangers, insurance company) reached an agreement where Fielder would still get paid most of his money without having to stay with the club.
Strasburg doesn’t have to do anything honestly. Any player under contract can basically just say “yeah I’m not doing that” and earn his money.
It will be interesting to see how this progresses and wether or not the Nationals DFA him in the off-season. Right now, he can simply sit on the 60 day IL without burning a forty man but all that changes in the off-season.
I believe it was actually the Tigers paying part of Fielder’s contract
.733 career ops and 4homers in his limited hitting experience. Convert him to 1b/dh. They’re paying him anyway so why not get a feel good story out of it
Huge bummer, will never forget what he did for us in October of 2019.
I cannot be critical of his contract simply because I feel too bad for the guy. What a brutal string of poor luck.
Staying healthy takes prudence and skill. It is not a matter of luck. Everything from body awareness to mental health to diet play a role. Not being an a**. Just saying. Most physical ailments (many specialists would say all) have their origin in emotions. This causes psychosomatic symptoms. Every emotion manifests in the body. Anxiety is nothing but your adrenal glands at work, for instance. Suppressed emotion accumulates “stagnant” energy in certain parts of body. All psychiatry stems from that original discovery by Freud. Also posture is effected by emotion. People with low confidence often droop their shoulders forward and their chest sinks in and gets no circulation and effects breathing, for instance. So many factors go into things that we can’t possibly calculate but luck is not the culprit.
Also I should point out the equally important fact that most people aren’t very aware of HOW they move their body and how it is supposed to move. For instance, most people lifting weights use the wrong muscles to do the exercise. Mechanics AND awareness are key. You could have perfect mechanics but not pay attention to what muscles you are using and blow out. A pitcher recently said his elbow issues were from having to grip the ball harder because of the foreign substance ban, for instance
Congrats on being a dbag
Wow. You think that’s being a dbag? You are so obviously misrepresenting the statements that I don’t really feel moved to defend them. Now later on…somewhere in the comments…you can glimpse me being a dbag. Heck, I’ll do it here. Poor wittle Stephen plays a decade of big league ball, wins a world series, and gets paid for life and doesn’t even have to perform. Does someone have a violin? Good for him but grow some thicker skin. Everyone has their difficulties in life. I’m just pointing out how everyone says health is luck. My mother has poor health. She worked herself to death practically, had 4 kids, and had the world’s worst dietary habits. She thinks it’s all bad luck,too.
I’m also of the opinion that modern athletes that use weight training to increase their performance do create muscles that can perform beyond the capabilities of their supporting joints and ligaments since their resistance training often does not go through the full range of motion that they do when actually playing/practicing. But….I have no concrete data to back that up.
Smartest comment ever. Yoga helps many of them. A Total Gym helps the upper body…working out all those smaller muscles that aren’t used in the mechanical sort of movements of weight lifting which don’t come close to how the body naturally moves. Dead on…most people only work out the big muscles while the ones that support them are neglected, not even noticed.
If your mom got cancer would that be her fault too?
We must have the same mother… although I love her dearly. Facts are facts. Totally bummed about Stras though.
I’ve only missed one Opening Day in Nationals history (unrelated to COVID) even though I’ve lived over half way across the country for the last two decades. I was at Game 1 of the WS in Houston two rows behind the Nats dugout (Stras didn’t pitch that game). However anytime Stras was on the mound, I was glued to the TV. The only other pitcher that had me captivated to watch each start week in and week out was Jose Fernandez.
I’ll miss seeing #37 on the hill just like we all missed Jose Fernandez in his prime (due to stupidity). Thanks for the memories Stras… You’ll be missed.
As Tony Gwynn famously said .. “ you can’t pull fat “ lol
It will be Lake, not Pompeo, because she is batsh!t crazy, too.
It’s not a matter of fault but of cause and effect. Simply saying it’s not luck. We can blame all kinds of things really. Some people will blame capitalism, some blame medical companies, Monsanto, modern lifestyle/diet, vaccines. Some will blame their parents, their boss, the stars, Adam and Eve, a mythological serpent, who knows all the factors? People have different opinions. Lots of factors no doubt.
I take Woodheads statement to mean he/she’s offended. There is a reason they say people can’t handle the truth. Awareness is a burden. Ignorance is bliss.
We dont need your weird “facts and logic” life lessons on a post about a guy having to retire young and maybe lose quality of life. If you can’t say sonething like; “congrats on a great career and best of luck with recovery” then just keep your ideas to yourself. I don’t pretend that luck is everything but your bad relationship with your mom belongs in the therpaists office. This is a baseball website.
Health isn’t ALL about luck, but luck is a factor. And when it comes to athletic injuries and health, you know literally nothing. This guy has professionals, the best money can buy, on his team and he still can’t get healthy. You don’t think luck is a factor in his bodies design and how it’s reacted to stress/use? You’re not a Dr and you’re not a philosophy major, just a guy with mommy issues trying to hijack a thread and make it about some weird “well, actually” moment for you. Gross.
Luck is a factor.
Terrible news. I’m also surprised that the Nats didn’t cover themselves with disability insurance after the injuries Strasburg had before signing him to that contract.
Insurance would have been pretty difficult to get or extremely expensive because of that injury history. High likelihood the Nats would end up making a claim.
Then that should’ve been factored in during contract negotiations with him. If the Nats find it prohibitive to insure him, other teams will have the same issue. Not having a policy is puzzling. I don’t go buy a Maybach before I find out how much I need to get it insured and maintained.
Not trying to make light how difficult and crappy this is for Strasburg, but this is probably the biggest waste of money in the history of baseball.
That deal was unconscionable at the time it was done. No one makes bad signings more than the Nats. Other than Scherzer every long term deal they have ever done has been a catastrophe. And they defer most of it so they’ll be paying these deals for a long time.
What other bad long term deal did they make that was a catastrophe?
Corbin. My bad. I will shut up now.
I still remember everyone dogging Jayson Werth’s long term deal. However Werth’s deal paved the way for other FA’s coming to DC and gave the team a clubhouse leader in their youth (outside of Ryan Zimmerman). That leadership played a part o the 2018 WS that Werth unfortunately missed out on (one could only wonder if the Nats would have made a run in the 2012 post season had Rizzo not shut down Stras). Nats fans got screwed royally… although it’s hard to complain about 2018.
Unconscionable? Stras literally dominated in the 2018 post season when the bright lights were on him. He was worth every penny when they signed him – risk vs reward – he had already proved the juice was worth the squeeze. Unfortunately, not everything pans out. It was either Stras or Rendon at the time if I recall correctly. Both were injury risks… Nationals rolled the dice with Stras and it didn’t pan out unfortunately.
It’s not so much the money that bothers me because I don’t have to pay it. This is about the worst bb injury I’ve ever heard of. The only one I can think of that affected him the rest of his life was Tony Conigliaro getting hit square in the eye. He was a (keeping with tone of the article) a phenomenal player with all the talent in the world. He wasn’t the same after that.
Don Richard. dickie thon, JR richard.
Don Zimmer, Bobby Valentine, Lasorda, Maris, Koufax
Guys like Stras is the reason there is insurance.
Trying to buy insurance for a guy like Stras would be like trying to insure a house on the flank of an active volcano.
I wonder if there is a thing like volcano insurance. It would be the perfect scam.
Good luck with that!
At least he near single-handedly got them a trophy. Had nothing to do with this contract, but Nats fans can’t be too mad at him personally.
Some phenomenal talents – Strasburg, Sale, deGrom – haven’t had any luck with injuries. Most baseball fans truly appreciate really talented pitchers and would love to see them start 25+ games a season, but their bodies just haven’t cooperated. The three guys noted above have made alot of money, but they want to compete and dominate.
Sucks for him but for $245,000,000 I would voluntarily break a bone in my body every month for the rest of my life.
Nerve damage is a little more serious than a broken bone, but I wouldn’t want either one.
Miguel Cabrera’s pitching doppelganger
All physical activity? You mean like Stephen Hawking?
You’re right, that was a dbag comment, but I’ve posted my share, too.
Absolutely devastating… dude sacrificed his career in his 30’s so the Nationals could win a World Series. Knowing that the Nats only win that series with Strasburg makes the 7 Year/$245 million contract hurt a little bit less.
Only 30.625 million dollars per start.
There’s no way to sugarcoat that.
Everyone except the nationals FO knew that contract was going to be a disaster before the ink dried.
The only hurdle for Stephen to pass with that contract was making sure to not hurt himself while using the pen to sign it.
I never thought I would ever see my team, the White Sox, win a WS in my lifetime but they did in 2005. I told myself to enjoy it because it isn’t likely to happen again. Nats fans, appreciate 2019 and the players who won it all. It may happen again, but it might not.
So if I’m doing my math right, the Nats paid $245,000,000 for exactly one win. Well at least thus far it’s a better deal than what the Yankees got out of Rodon.
Rodon still has 5+ years left to make good on his one lone W and hasn’t been shut down. The Yankees probably also insured his contract so it’s not a total loss.
It’s not the worst deal ever though for one W per se. Bud Light has lost billions in their attempt to achieve one W with Dylan Mulvaney.
A shame. A HOF level talent.
Definitely not Hall of Famer. Hall of Very Good, yes
Would have been if he had been healthy all these years.
This entire scenario is insane. It was insane for the Nationals to give a $245,000,000 contract to an over the age of 30 pitcher who had already pitched over 1,400 innings. It is insane for Strasburg, who made enough money to live a life of luxury prior to the $245,000,000 contract, to continue with the high risk of additional damage to his body. And what might be next, liver damage from taking medications?
Seems like he has become allergic to pitching.
Seems like you are allergic to empathy and common decency
Very unfortunate that someone with that much talent hasn’t been able to stay on the field.
His contract might be the worst ever in sports history.
Chris Davis is on line 1
Temporary until Strasburg’s contract is over.
Chris actually showed up to play even though he was horrible. Stras is sitting on his ass collecting money
Strasburg accomplished more in 3 years than Davis’ entire career. His peak years in Texas were trivial in the grand scheme of things because he hit a lot of home runs which really don’t mean anything. Plus, wasn’t he busted for steroids twice?
I feel bad for Stras. When you calculate all of that money of that contract which is more then one person needs in a lifetime, you wonder how much that money could help thousands of people in the DC areas and others in the US. Not blaming Stras, just the system we live in and accept.
What?????
Capitalism is awesome. Unfortunately, Stras has to pay a ton of taxes on that money which supports a large segment of lazy Americans. Our tax system steals from successful individuals IMO that create their only destiny (not everyone inherits a bunch of money). We should move to a consumption tax so people that have success but don’t live extravigantly can actually not have the government literally pillage their money each quarter.
Username does not check out.
Capitalism? Baseball is a monopoly and is heavily subsidized by governments. That’s a weird form of capitalism.
Exactly, accept. You accept that every time you watch or go to a game. If the capitalistic nature of baseball upsets you that much, why do you contribute to its popularity?
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Im not a fan of the evil system, but I’m not gonna stop watching baseball.
That officially seals it as the worst contract in sports history
“Shut down from all physical activity” — NOW, we have a Mr. Glass. Oh, to be handsomely paid and ordered not to move a muscle.
This vicious reality of modern day baseball of “Get paid, get hurt, and get gone” is bound to end pretty soon.
No one benefits.
Not until fans at the parks rebel against $30 hot dogs and $50 beers.
Rebel?
It’s used properly as a verb in this situation IMO.
But still doesn’t make any sense.
Boras is really good at his job.
All physical activity? Have they placed him in a medically induced coma?
Full body traction. The article makes it clearer what this means. He’s been shut down from all rehab work for more than a month, but he can probably walk and maybe even chew gum at the same time.
Still tough.
He and the Blue Baron haven’t smiled in four years.
What a joke! Stras is thief and he seems perfectly fine with being one. Also, how dumb does his team sound saying they won’t do any more rehab work unless they’re sure it won’t hurt his health any further. If that’s the case stop stealing the Nats money and retire.
@zone. Only guy that comes to mind doing that is Gil Meche. Highly unlikely we ever see that kind of integrity again.
Lmao, integrity??? You act like the Nats would use his salary to feed orphans if he retired. They signed the deal, he’s entitled to every penny. Why do people root for corporations?
Strasburg will forever be stuck with the “what might have been” label.
I had a bad feeling about that contract when he signed. The Nats had to do the deal because it wouldn’t look good if they didn’t sign both Strasburg and Rendon after winning the WS.
Strasburg should be in jail, what a bum. He should be forced to give back every penny to the Nationals. If he was getting paid per start he’d be out there right now with a 2 ERA and pitcher 8 or 9 innings a night. These dogs are getting praised by naive commenters on this site. They have managed to fool 90% of fans. Not me. Strasburg, Stanton, Chris Davis, Rodon, Hicks, Pujols etc. All these guys belong in jail and should not be praised
lol, Strasburg should be in jail for…the Nationals giving him a contract that they signed off on? You can’t be serious.
The Nationals knew what they were getting into, they knew his injury history.
When 245 million buys you 8 starts…
Makes me want to vomit
Lots of jealous angry guys in the comments, as always. You think he likes this outcome? Ya’ll act like he planned this or tricked the nationals! Also, it ain’t YOUR MONEY! Why get so miserable? Jeez, sour grapes. Do you people even like baseball?
Last time I saw him, he got ejected by giving some hard time to the umpire from the audience seat he was sitting during the COVID season with no audience. I’m sure this goes to many of you.
Let’s not forget his numbers are only from the pre-sticky stuff years.