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Washington Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg is battling an illness and was scratched from Wednesday’s start as a result. However, he’s ready to make his return to the mound. 

Continue for updates.

Strasburg Starts vs. Braves

Thursday, April 14

After being scratched from Wednesday’s start, Strasburg was back on the mound on Thursday against Atlanta, per Mark Zuckerman of CSN Washington. 

Injury-Plagued Strasburg Looks to Bounce Back from Tough 2015 

Strasburg’s career has been defined as much by his injuries as it has been for his pitching. The 27-year-old missed virtually all of the 2011 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and was handled very carefully by the Nationals for the next two years.

In 2014, Strasburg appeared to be putting all of his skills together. The former No. 1 overall pick made a career-high 34 starts, covering 215 innings with a 3.14 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and tied for the National League lead with 242 strikeouts.

All the good vibes came crashing down on Strasburg in 2015, as he had a 5.16 ERA in the first half and spent one month from July to August on the disabled list with a strained oblique. He did end the season strong with a 1.90 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 66.1 innings after the All-Star break.

Stats per Baseball-Reference.com.

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VIERA, Fla. — Stephen Strasburg already knew this year was going to be different. New manager. New expectations. Free agent at year’s end.

But a clue as to how strange things could get arrived the other day during a conversation with the new skipper, Dusty Baker.

Now, understand, Baker knows everybody. And it’s one thing that endears him to his players. Common friends and acquaintances. But even for Dusty, this was wild.

As Strasburg honeymooned on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in January 2010, his agent, Scott Boras, arranged with a local high school for someone to catch the right-hander because, wedding or no wedding, he needed to throw off a mound.

Anyway, the kid’s family owned a brick-oven pizza place. And during his non-throwing hours, Strasburg and his wife visited there and also went to the family’s home for a Hawaiian barbecue.

Somehow, Baker knows the family.

“I don’t know how Dusty knows ’em, but he knows ’em,” Strasburg said during an early-morning conversation in the Washington Nationals‘ spring clubhouse the other day, shaking his head and smiling.

Yes, it is a new season with new relationships. Maybe those will help launch Strasburg toward the heights that neither he nor the Nationals seem to be able to reach.

Next door to his locker is Max Scherzer, ace pitcher and valuable resource. Two years ago in Detroit, it was Scherzer who walked into camp with his future uncertain beyond the coming season. And Scherzer rose to the challenge, going 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA there and scoring a $210 million deal here.

He has not yet offered Strasburg any advice on the impending pressure and inevitable distractions. There is no GPS to navigate through the maze. But surely, in a quiet moment or two when circumstances threaten to knock Strasburg off course this season, Scherzer will be there to help balance him.

“You’ve got to realize, we’ve always had to play for money,” Scherzer said. “You go through the draft, there’s a pot of gold at the end of it. Then you go through arbitration, and there’s a pot of gold after every season.

“This year, there’s another pot of gold. Nothing changes.

“Only the size of the pot of gold changes.”

Strasburg admits that impending free agency crosses his mind every so often, especially during the winter when contracts and business talk dominate the sport’s landscape.

Once he walked into camp, he said, it became easy to focus because this is the atmosphere he knows. Pitching. Preparation. The insular protection the clubhouse offers from the outside world.

The rest, he concedes, will be different.

“The other stuff, I’ve never dealt with before,” he said. “It is completely unknown to me. I’ll focus on what I know, and that’s this team.”

What he also knows is pitching under pressure, which makes what is on deck for him next winter not unlike, in so many ways, all the mounds he has previously climbed.

At San Diego State, there was the hype that accompanies the projected No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

In the minors, there was the anticipation that he should steam straight on through like a freight train.

The circus accompanied his comeback from 2010 Tommy John surgery. There was the innings limit during his first full season in the majors in 2012, when the Nationals pulled the plug on his season at 159.1 innings pitched in early September.

Never has he been surrounded by silence.

“This year isn’t any different than any other,” he said. “There always have been expectations. There’s always been a microscope.”

But there is no denying the slight difference between this and other summers for Strasburg, who was one of baseball’s hottest pitchers down the stretch in 2015 by going 6-2 with a glittering 1.90 ERA over his final 10 starts.

“Look, you have a chance to make as much money in this next year as you will for your whole life,” Scherzer said. “That can be a lot of pressure. You have to be so focused solely on winning.

“If you worry about anything else, you won’t win.” 

Strasburg, who avoided arbitration this year by signing a one-year, $10.4 million deal with the Nationals, said there have been no discussions yet about an extension. In terms of if or when there might be, stay tuned.

“I’m always listening,” he said. “We’ll see. You’re always open to listening.

“We like D.C. My family is comfortable in D.C. Right now, there’s nothing to report on.”

Boras said last month that he expects to discuss Strasburg‘s future with the Nationals at season’s end. Traditionally, the agent takes his clients into free agency, there rarely is a hometown discount (the Los Angeles Angels‘ Jered Weaver, who signed a five-year, $85 million deal with the club in August 2011, is one notable exception) and they wind up leaving for a more lucrative deal elsewhere.

Though Strasburg has not said he won’t negotiate during the season, in the past, many others in his situation have said they won’t talk contracts after Opening Day. He can see why.

“I’ve seen guys do that before, and it makes sense,” Strasburg said. “You don’t really want to have conversations that can be a distraction not only to yourself, but to the guys with you in the clubhouse.

“The thing I’ve come to learn is anything can happen. Anything can happen a week from now, or eight or nine months from now.”

To this point, he said he doesn’t have a list of potential cities in which he’s interested.

“This is the only team I know,” he said. “This is the comfort zone for me.

“I’ve been more focused on what we have laid out in front of us as a ballclub. We have a new manager, a new coaching staff, a new training staff. I’ve really enjoyed all of it.”

Highly respected pitching coach Mike Maddux was lured from the Texas Rangers to join Baker as the Nationals pick up the pieces of a disastrous 2015 season. Packaged with the new start, though, are the old expectations, albeit more tattered now having gone through several spin cycles over the past couple of seasons.

This is a team that needs to take advantage of Bryce Harper’s brilliance, Strasburg‘s presence, Scherzer‘s dominance and Jayson Werth’s wiliness before all of this youth and talent turns to dust. And the clock is ticking louder.

“I just need to try and get better and do what I can to help this team win games,” said Strasburg, 27, who has logged 200 or more innings just once. “It was a big learning year for me last year.

“I want to pick up where I left off. I feel like I made some steps. I’m not going to sit here and say that because I pitched well, everything is good.

“I feel like I made steps in preparation and consistency.”

Now comes the tricky part in his walk year: seeing where those steps take him and his team.

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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The Washington Nationals roll into the 2016 season focused on a single question: Can they zap the memory of last year’s embarrassing implosion and claw back to the postseason?

As spring gives way to summer, however, another question may creep into the foreground in D.C.: Can the Nats afford to lose Stephen Strasburg next winter and get virtually nothing in return?

Odds are, this will be Strasburg‘s final season in the nation’s capital, one way or another. The 27-year-old right-hander has battled injuries and inconsistency in his six big league seasons, but he’s an unmitigated stud who’ll be the crown jewel of an otherwise pedestrian 2016-17 free-agent class.

Strasburg dominated in 2014, pacing the Senior Circuit with 242 strikeouts. After grappling with back and neck issues, he finished strong last season, posting a 1.90 ERA with 92 strikeouts in 66.1 innings after the All-Star break, erasing a lot of concern.

Then again, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post pointed out, “Contract years can test mental fortitude.”

Still, assuming his arm doesn’t fall off in 2016, someone is going to throw a lot of years and dollars at Strasburg. A massive bidding war is close to a foregone conclusion.

The Nationals could wade in. They proved they’re willing to spend big on pitching with the seven-year, $210 million deal they handed Max Scherzer in January 2015. But the law of supply and demand will not be on their side, and it’s easy to imagine a deep-pocketed suitor swooping in and stealing Strasburg.

Oh, and did we mention that his agent is Scott Boras? Cue the cash register sound effect.

Strasburg sounded the right notes recently, doing the familiar “live in the moment, see what happens” two-step that all impending mega-free-agents are expected to do.

“I really don’t know,” the former No. 1 overall pick said, per Todd Dybas of the Washington Times. “It’s not like I’ve been in a contract year before. I know what I know, and I know that I go out there, and I bust my butt every single day. If I give it everything [I] have to help this team win some games, all that other stuff is going to take care of itself.”

OK, back to the Nats‘ dilemma. Currently, their goal is to scramble to the top of the National League East heap, period. They entered last season with the hype winds blowing stiffly at their back and proceeded to dissolve into a puddle of dysfunction. Their 83-79 record only hints at the acrimony and disappointment. 

Veteran skipper Dusty Baker has replaced Matt Williams at the helm. And while Washington whiffed on big-ticket free-agent targets, including Jason Heyward, they added complementary piece,s such as second baseman Daniel Murphy and outfielder Ben Revere.

The defending NL champion New York Mets are the division favorites until further notice, but the Nats have more than a fighting chance.

They’ve got reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper, after all, plus a rotation fronted by Scherzer—who twirled a pair of no-hitters last season—and Strasburg. And they can cross their fingers that contributors like Ryan Zimmerman and Anthony Rendon will rebound from injuries.

For what it’s worth, FanGraphs projects the Nationals to win the NL East by three games over the Mets. Now they’ve just got to do it on the field.

Assuming they get off to a strong start and look like clear contenders by the trade deadline, the choice to keep Strasburg will be an easy one. The Nats have been waiting for years to get over the hump, advancing as far as the division series in 2012 and 2014, but never breaking through.

With Harper himself set to hit the open market after the 2018 season, this window won’t stay open forever. 

On the other hand, if Washington stumbles again and the pitching-rich Mets appear to be running away with things, the temptation to deal Strasburg and net a haul of prospects or MLB-ready talent will grow. 

“I think they are willing to listen [to offers] this time,” a source told Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller in November. “He did well in the second half, so they’re thinking of him as a top-of-the-rotation guy. He’s not a No. 3 anymore. It would have to be a pretty good price for him. But he is one year from free agency, and he’s not going to re-sign.”

The winter has come and (almost) gone, and Strasburg remains. Those trade sparks, however, could be reignited in an instant.

Yes, Strasburg would be a rental if the Nats moved him in July. Then again, as general manager Mike Rizzo pointed out, per James Wagner of the Washington Post, “A lot of guys in the last year of their deal reap big rewards in the trade when you’re really good.”

One prospect the Nationals discussed this offseason in a potential Strasburg swap, Wagner added, was Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager. That deal never happened, of course, but it gives you a sense of the talent Washington could reap, particularly if Strasburg pitches to the peak of his ability.

So that’s where the rock meets the hard place. If Strasburg is dealing like an ace in the waning weeks of July and the Nats are clinging to the fringes of the playoff chase, do they keep him and hope for a surge or cash him in before he bolts for a Boras-aided payday?

Yes, the Nationals could extend a qualifying offer to Strasburg and thus net a draft pick assuming he rejects it and signs elsewhere after the season. But that won’t equal what they could get in a trade from a pitching-desperate contender in the heat of the race.

In the end, this is a wait-and-see decision contingent upon variables we can’t know until the games count and the action commences. But as the Nationals embark on their 2016 redemption tour, the Strasburg conundrum will loom large in the background.

Maybe they’ll run the table and render the point moot. Or perhaps they’ll crash and burn and make the choice an easy one.

What seems more probable, however, is that they’ll be close enough to go for it, but not far enough ahead to erase all doubt. If that’s the case, they should hang on to Strasburg and roll the dice.

Winning windows don’t stay open forever. And sometimes, an ace up your sleeve is worth two in the deck.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The Washington Nationals are built on the strength of their pitching rotation, but contract talks between the team and star pitcher Stephen Strasburg are dead in the water.

Continue for updates.

Nationals, Strasburg Not Talking Extension

Monday, Feb. 15

Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, said Strasburg has not discussed a contract extension with the Nationals, per ESPN.com.

Strasburg, Washington’s first overall pick in 2009 out of San Diego State, is set to become a free agent after the upcoming season. He and the Nationals settled on a one-year, $10.4 million deal Jan. 15 to avoid arbitration, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.

Per ESPN.com, Boras noted the sides will not discuss a new contract until after the season.

Strasburg has had an up-and-down career. After a 5-3 start to his rookie campaign in 2010, he underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery.

He made only five starts in 2011 but became an All-Star for the first time in 2012, when he finished 15-6 with a 3.16 ERA and 197 strikeouts in 159.1 innings. Since then, he has gone 33-27 with a 3.17 ERA in 87 starts.

If the same Strasburg who finished 2015 strong shows up this season, the right-hander could be in for a huge payday, per D.J. Short of Rotoworld:

Over the last three seasons, Strasburg has never had an ERA above 3.46, and his strikeout numbers have been great. He struck out a career-high 242 batters in 2014, when he tied for the National League lead.

The 27-year-old has already bounced back from Tommy John surgery and shown flashes of being one of the best pitchers in baseball. If the Nationals can’t get him to agree to an extension, another team will come along and invest the future of its franchise in Strasburg.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. Follow Danny on Twitter, @DannyWebster21.

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Before all the confetti and empties were picked up from the streets of Kansas City after the Royals had their World Series parade, the Major League Baseball hot-stove season had its first blockbuster trade. 

When the Los Angeles Angels decided to give up a significant return package to acquire all-world shortstop Andrelton Simmons from the Atlanta Braves, it was the kind of deal that could result in both clubs receiving game-changing players.

The Braves might end up with a pitching gem in prospect Sean Newcomb, but we already know the kind of defensive impact Simmons can have on a team. For the Angels, he could become the kind of player who alters the franchise’s fortunes, especially within an era that better understands and values defensive wizardry.

After all, Ozzie Smith is in the Hall of Fame with similar below-average offensive numbers, and Simmons might end up being a better defensive shortstop when his career comes to a close.

The question now is this: What other trade targets on the market, or potentially off the market, are the kind of franchise game-changers Simmons could become? There does seem to be a group of them to choose from, but, like Simmons, they are going to cost a team potentially great young talent.

This is when organizations have to balance their futures with the need to win now.

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Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg is recovering after undergoing surgery to remove a growth in his back, per Fox Sports’ Jon Morosi. 

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Scott Boras: Growth ‘Caused Discomfort While Pitching’

Wednesday, Nov. 11

Scott Boras confirmed the back issues affected Strasburg’s performance during the season and that the pitcher is feeling better following the procedure, per Morosi.

The injury saga continues for Strasburg, who has made 30-plus starts in a single season just twice in his six-year career.

After a slew of injuries in 2015 that included neck tightness and an oblique strain, he most recently returned from a back issue that forced him out of an August 30 start against the Colorado Rockies that sidelined him for 10 days. 

With the timing of the back procedure, Strasburg will have plenty of rest to recover before spring training begins.

There’s no question it will be imperative that Strasburg has a big season—both for his own career and his team’s benefit.

Washington still has the pieces to win right now, and hiring Dusty Baker showed the franchise’s commitment to competing for a World Series in 2016. If the Nationals lose Jordan Zimmermann to free agency this winter, Strasburg will be a key piece of the starting rotation.

The 27-year-old also has a lot on the line since he has just one more year of arbitration left before hitting the open market. The right-hander is in line for a massive payday should he pitch well and remain healthy next year. Given his recent history, those are both big question marks.

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So, you’re the Washington Nationals, you’ve hired a new manager and a new pitching coach, and you’re probably saying farewell to free-agent starters Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister.

Next question: What’s the expiration date for Stephen Strasburg?

One year from now, Strasburg is a free agent, and the chances of his returning to the District in 2017 are roughly the equivalent of Abraham Lincoln’s.

Strasburg’s agent, Scott Boras, always leads his clients into the open market. His teammate, Max Scherzer, is soaking up $200 million worth of Natitude payroll through 2021.

So you’re the Nationals—do you play out next summer with Strasburg, take your chances and then let him walk as a free agent and collect a draft pick?

Do you shop him at the July 31 trade deadline?

Or do you make a preemptive strike and deal him this winter?

“I think they are willing to listen [to offers] this time,” one source close to the Nationals says. “He did well in the second half, so they’re thinking of him as a top-of-the-rotation guy. He’s not a No. 3 anymore.

“It would have to be a pretty good price for him. But he is one year from free agency, and he’s not going to re-sign.

“They’ll listen more this year than last year.”

Two months after their train wreck of a season ended with newly acquired closer Jonathan Papelbon’s hands wrapped around presumptive NL MVP Bryce Harper’s throat, the Nationals are still working on unclutching the fists of pressure from their own necks.

They will tell you that injuries to Fister, Strasburg, Jayson Werth, Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman and others sabotaged their 2015 season, and to an extent that is correct.

But the game accepts no excuses. And a team that entered ’15 as the overwhelming favorite to win the NL pennant and bring a World Series back to D.C. for the first time since 1933 didn’t get it done despite spending mega-millions.

Consequently, no matter how cool they play it on the outside, things are at a boil internally for the Nationals, according to several industry sources. Already, they are losing key pieces from their ’15 team. Their proverbial window to win with Werth, Strasburg, Harper and others suddenly is not nearly as wide open as it once was.

And the walls clearly are closing in on general manager Mike Rizzo.

“Rizzo cannot do a rebuild right now,” says one American League executive. “The heat is turned up there.

“If he deals Strasburg, they have to make sure there’s depth in the rotation. He has to win right now. It’s not like he can win 80 this year and promise to win 100 in two years. He won’t be there.”

One indication that Rizzo’s leash has shortened came during the fiasco of a search to replace manager Matt Williams. The Nationals settled on Bud Black and produced an opening offer of one year and $1.6 million, according to multiple sources, and as any self-respecting, veteran manager would do, Black told the Nats to take their job and shove it.

They quickly turned to Dusty Baker and sprinted straight into damage-control mode, claiming all along that they were negotiating with Black and Baker at the same time. They weren’t. But, as multiple industry sources told Bleacher Report, Rizzo was caught as the middle man while the club owner, the Lerner family, drove the negotiations with Black, thus his belated (and lame) explanation of a “unique situation.”

Another indication of increased pressure on the GM is that the club fired a handful of scouts at season’s end, including one of Rizzo’s key right-hand men, special assistant Bill Singer.

“That was somebody’s pound of flesh to say, ‘We’re doing something,'” the executive continues. “Usually it’s coaches, players, the manager, and once it passes the manager’s chair, there’s only one more chair to get to.”

So these next 12 months are as important as any the Nationals have faced since their move from Montreal in 2005, and they very well may make or break Rizzo’s career.

One year after leading the majors with 242 strikeouts over 215 innings, Strasburg in 2015 went 11-7 with a 3.46 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 127.1 innings pitched.

A strained left trapezius muscle and a left oblique strain knocked him onto the disabled list twice, reducing his number of starts to 23 from 34 in 2014.

“He was really good in the second half,” says another major league executive. “He had a lot of injury issues in the first half, but he finished on a high note.”

Indeed, Strasburg, after going 5-5 with a 5.16 ERA in 13 starts in the season’s first half, went 6-2 with a 1.90 ERA in the second half.

He struck out 63 hitters in 61 innings in those 13 first-half starts, then whiffed 92 in 66.1 innings pitched in the 10 second-half starts.

With Zimmermann and Fister gone, the Nationals could depend on Strasburg to form a one-two punch with Scherzer in a rotation that also includes Gio Gonzalez, Tanner Roark and Joe Ross.

Or, they could remake their rotation now.

It isn’t often that a 27-year-old ace is dangled via trade, and in speaking with a handful of executives and scouts over the past few days—all were promised anonymity in exchange for their thoughts—nobody expects the Nationals to deal Strasburg for anything less than an enormous package.

“Starting with a major league pitcher and a prospect,” one scout says. “A rotation guy and a prospect.”

“It probably would be a mixture of a good prospect who’s close, another one further down and someone to help your big league team now,” an executive says.

“There would have to be a bullpen guy coming back for sure,” says another scout who knows the Nationals well. “They feel pretty good about their rotation next year—Joe Ross fits in nicely, Tanner Roark. A.J. Cole? He’s not ready yet.”

Rizzo’s Papelbon ploy failed miserably last summer, and the Nats absolutely need bullpen upgrades. New pitching coach Mike Maddux isn’t going to fix things alone.

Where future starting pitching is concerned, the Nationals are highest on young right-hander Lucas Giolito (21), who split last summer between Class A and Double-A. The Nationals’ first-round pick (16th overall) in 2012 out of Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, California, Giolito could arrive in the bigs in 2017.

In other words, the first post-Strasburg season in Washington if the Nats opt not to deal him this winter or in July.

“You’d think you’d get more for him now because the team you deal him to will have him for a whole year,” one executive says. “On the other hand, if you wait until the trade deadline, you might do well, too, because you’ve paid down the money and teams might be looking for a rental.

“But they’re a win-now team. I wouldn’t think they’d be looking to trade him now. But if they’re not in the hunt….”

If they’re not in the hunt come July, then Rizzo is going to have many other problems. Namely, networking to ensure himself a landing spot when the Lerners pull the plug on him.

The Nationals did have conversations regarding Strasburg last winter, including, according to FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, with the Texas Rangers. Names bandied about then included right-hander Steven Souza, then of the Nationals, and shortstop Jurickson Profar, who still is with the Rangers.

Subsequently, the Nats dealt Souza to Tampa Bay last winter in the exotic three-team, 10-player deal that included San Diego and netted the Nationals both Joe Ross and the player they view ready to replace Desmond at shortstop this year, Trea Turner.

For now, the GM who wrote the blueprint on dealing an ace roughly the age of Strasburg is Kansas City’s Dayton Moore, who, in December 2010, shipped right-hander Zack Greinke to Milwaukee for a package that included two prospects who starred on this fall’s World Series title team: center fielder Lorenzo Cain and shortstop Alcides Escobar.

That deal, which also sent starter Jake Odorizzi to the Royals (Moore two years later shipped him and Wil Myers to Tampa Bay for James Shields and Wade Davis), came after Greinke’s age-26 season. So he was one year younger than Strasburg, and he also had a Cy Young award (2009) on his resume.

Another difference, of course, is that those Royals weren’t yet ready to win, which is why they accepted a couple of high-end prospects.

The Nationals have been ready to win since 2012, but they haven’t. And eventually, in 2019, 2020 and 2021, Scherzer will vacuum in $35 million per season. What was measured optimism in Washington during the past couple of summers now is eroding, quickly.

“All of a sudden, with all of the depth they had in that rotation, they’re looking at Fister not working out this year, and Strasburg [soon] as a free agent,” an executive says. “And the window is small.”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Now that all the actual baseballing is over, we can finally turn our attention to the possibility of a Washington Nationals star heading to the Bronx and transforming the New York Yankees.

No, not that one. The other one. Stephen Strasburg.

Yeah, that one. Though the Nationals could lose Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister to free agency this winter, word is they might shop Strasburg anyway. As Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported in mid-October, there’s a “lot of buzz” that the Nationals could make the 27-year-old right-hander available.

As for which teams could pursue Strasburg—who only has one year to go until free agency—if the Nationals put him out there, Cafardo had nothing to say. However, one need not jump through hoops or do any rocket surgery to be able to draw a straight line from Strasburg to the Yankees.

The Yankees had a mostly successful 2015 season, winning 87 games and making their first postseason since 2012. But among the reasons why they fell short of the AL East crown and failed to move beyond the AL Wild Card Game was their mediocre starting rotation. It finished with just a 4.25 ERA.

Hence why Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors highlighted starting pitching as an “an area of focus” for Yankees general manager Brian Cashman this winter. And if you ask Mike Axisa of River Avenue Blues, he’ll say the Yankees should make a pursuit of Strasburg a part of that focus.

He’s right, you know. And here’s why: While the Yankees do have the makings of a solid starting rotation, they lack a guy who stands out as a true ace.

Take a wild guess who could be that guy.

Yeah, yeah. I know. Using the word “ace” in conjunction with the name “Strasburg” is not as easy as we expected it to be.

Strasburg was heralded as baseball’s next great starting pitcher when he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2009. But a promising breakthrough in 2010 was cut short by Tommy John surgery, and Strasburg hasn’t been untouchable since becoming a regular in Washington’s rotation in 2012. 

But now comes the part where we stop kidding ourselves and get into the truth of Strasburg‘s career. He’s been really good, has arguably been even better than really good and might now be on the verge of the elite ace-like season we’ve been waiting for.

Though there’s no ignoring Strasburg‘s durability issues—he’s pitched over 200 innings only once—he has indeed been one of the league’s most effective pitchers when he’s been healthy in the last four years. His 3.17 ERA may not sound especially impressive, but that darn near qualifies him as a top-10 starter.

Strasburg comes off looking even better in the eyes of Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) and Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP). According to FIP, he’s MLB’s eighth-most effective pitcher since 2012. According to xFIP, the top of the 2012-2015 leaderboard looks like this:

1. Clayton Kershaw: 2.59
2. Stephen Strasburg: 2.80

Why do FIP and xFIP like Strasburg so much? Primarily because they love pitchers who rack up strikeouts and limit walks. Nobody has ever questioned Strasburg‘s ability in those two arenas. His mid-90s fastball and wicked curveball and changeup have allowed him to compile a 10.3 K/9 over the last four seasons. His excellent control, meanwhile, has allowed him to compile a 2.3 BB/9.

Though the 3.46 ERA Strasburg posted in 2015 would seem to suggest otherwise, these skills are still very much intact. His fastball velocity is doing just fine, and Brooks Baseball can vouch that his curveball (see below) and changeup remain extremely difficult to hit. And in throwing 67.1 percent strikes, he found the strike zone exactly 50.0 percent of the time in 2015.

Of course, strikeouts and walks alone don’t tell the whole story of a pitcher’s talent. By extension, neither do FIP and xFIP. There’s something they miss, and this particular something has been Strasburg‘s true weakness.

Two words: contact management. 

This is something Strasburg hasn’t been particularly good at. He’s excelled neither at getting ground balls (46.2 GB%) nor at getting pop-ups (9.1 IFFB%) throughout his career, and he has also failed to be a merchant of soft (18.1 Soft%) or hard (28.9 Hard%) contact.

As Shane Ryan of Grantland (RIP) pointed out, this is partially owed to Strasburg‘s inability to develop a reliable fourth pitch. As ESPN.com’s Tony Blengino pointed out, it’s also due to how Strasburg‘s plus control hasn’t translated into plus command within the strike zone.

But while this has been the big knock on Strasburg to this point, it’s possible that it may soon be history.

When looking at Strasburg‘s 2015 season, it stands out that he rescued himself from mediocrity with a brilliant 10-start stretch at the end. In 66.1 innings, he posted a 1.90 ERA with 92 strikeouts, eight walks and an opponents’ OPS of just .512. He was as good as he’s ever been.

How did this happen? According to the man himself, it came from an adjustment between his ears.

“I learned to be more aware of my thoughts out there,” Strasburg told James Wagner of the Washington Post. “There are times in the game when you can kind of let your focus slip just for a split second. And I made it a point to not let that happen, to just focus on each pitch and just let everything I’ve got go on that individual pitch and turn the page.”

This, certainly, is a worthwhile adjustment. There have been times through the years when Strasburg has fallen to pieces when confronted with adversity. If he’s getting over that, great.

But something else was at play in Strasburg‘s hot finish. When diving into the finer points of how he got things done, one notices that he got better at managing contact. He got plenty of pop-ups (16.4 IFFB%) and outperformed his career rates in the Soft% (21.9) and Hard% (27.4) departments. 

As for what happened, there was a noticeable change in Strasburg‘s fastball location. Whereas he spent the early portion of 2015 working mainly across the middle of the zone, he spent the latter portion of 2015 working more up in the zone.

This wasn’t the first time that a Nationals starter reaped the benefits of more high fastballs. Zimmermann took to living up in the zone with his own heat in 2014, and the result was a breakout year built on the strength of a career-best K/9 and career-best IFFB% rate.

Strasburg‘s move up in the zone might have been him taking after Zimmermann. The way in which that correlated with a marked improvement in his contact management without infringing on his mastery of strikeouts and walks makes him quite the intriguing pitcher for 2016. 

And if he so happens to become a member of the Yankees, their rotation in turn would also become quite intriguing.

Exactly how the Yankees would acquire Strasburg is as good a question as any, but there should be no doubt it’s something they can do.

Even beyond the presumably untouchable Aaron Judge, the Yankees have an improving farm system they could dip into to pull off a deal for Strasburg. If the Nationals prefer more established players, the Yankees have a trio of starters they can deal from: Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and Adam Warren.

Whatever the case, let’s assume there’s a deal to be made that sends Strasburg to the Bronx. If that happens, a rotation that was shaky in 2015 would suddenly look awfully solid for 2016.

Behind Strasburg, there would be Masahiro Tanaka and his mix of excellent command, a plus slider and a plus-plus splitter. Behind him, there would be 21-year-old phenom Luis Severino and his mix of plus-plus stuff and budding command. If all three were to live up to their potential in 2016, the Yankees’ 2016 rotation would feature one of the league’s best pitching trios.

Behind the front three could be Pineda and/or Eovaldi, who have nasty stuff of their own. If one of them were to go in the deal for Strasburg, bringing up the rear would be CC Sabathia. There aren’t many reasons to believe in him anymore, but by far the most appealing is the notion that he might be a changed man after going through alcohol rehab.

Regardless, things would look very encouraging for the Yankees’ starting rotation if Strasburg were to be placed at the head of it. The Yankees would be looking at going from having mediocre starting pitching to potentially elite starting pitching.

And that could indeed be enough for them to take the next step in 2016.

The awesome duo of Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller would still be at the back end of the bullpen after all. And though the Yankees can’t expect more of the same from Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira on offense in 2016, bounce-back years from Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner, and Judge’s impending arrival, could ensure that the offense as a whole remains an elite unit.

The way things are set up in those two departments, starting pitching is really the only missing link in the Yankees’ plans for 2016. If pursuing Strasburg is how they choose to deal with that problem, they’ll be making a bold play that could get them to the very spot they desire to return to: On top of everyone else.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The list of starting pitchers set to hit free agency this winter reads like the notes in the margin of a Cy Young Award ballot.

One arm, though, could turn the market on its head—and he’s currently signed through 2016.

We’re talking about Stephen Strasburg, and if the Washington Nationals make him available, we’re also talking about an offseason game-changer.

To get this out of the way: There is no guarantee the Nats will move the hard-throwing right-hander and former No. 1 overall pick.

Jordan Zimmermann and Doug Fister, two-fifths of the starting rotation on Opening Day, could bolt as free agents. And even with reserves in the minor leagues—including top prospect Lucas Giolito—the Nationals may be gun-shy about jettisoning Strasburg.

Then there’s the fact that, while Strasburg has some of the best raw stuff in baseball when he’s right, he’s coming off an enigmatic season.

Yes, Strasburg finished 2015 on a promising note, pitching into the eighth inning in three of his final five starts and racking up 57 strikeouts next to just five walks over that stretch.

But the 27-year-old former All-Star battled back and neck injuries and looked downright mediocre at times. On July 4, his ERA sat at an unsightly 5.16.

Still, all that said, Strasburg is a franchise talent, well worth a roll of the dice and a hefty package of prospects. 

“I learned a lot about myself this year,” Strasburg said after his final outing on Oct. 1, per James Wagner of the Washington Post. “I’m just going to continue to try getting better every single day.”

So, will the Nats—who went from World Series favorites to a smoldering tire fire of disappointment—dangle him? 

There are indications they will. In mid-September, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that Washington had “wide-ranging” talks with the Texas Rangers about Strasburg prior to the 2015 season. And on Oct. 18, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that there is “a lot of buzz” surrounding a Strasburg trade.

If that’s true, if this is more than idle speculation, it’ll throw a serious wrench in the hot-stove machinery. 

You’ve seen it before, but for a refresher, here’s a partial rundown of the pitchers who should be available to sign once the World Series wraps up, in addition to the aforementioned Zimmermann and Fister: David Price, Zack Greinke, Scott Kazmir, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Marco Estrada—the list goes on.

As usual, the list of teams that’ll be shopping for pitching is also extensive, and includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox, MLB‘s top four payrolls, per Spotrac.com. You don’t need a crystal ball or advanced degree in economics to see some crazy bidding wars on the horizon.

If Strasburg is ripe for the picking, however, expect the market to develop slowly. Of the teams listed above, Los Angeles, New York and Boston all have the assets to swing a deal with Washington, which will likely seek a combination of blue-chip prospects and MLB-ready talent.

Add the Chicago Cubs, title-hungry after a trip to the National League Championship Series, to that list as well.

Even without a tantalizing trade target, top free agents can sit on the shelf for months. Last winter, recall that Max Scherzer, the big-ticket free-agent arm, didn’t sign until January 21, when he finalized his seven-year, $210 million deal with the Nationals.

But toss the possibility of a Strasburg blockbuster into the mix, and we could see an epic logjam, with top-tier names like Price and Greinke waiting and the rest of this deep pitching pool backed up indefinitely.

Everyone will sign eventually, of course. And maybe the Nats will decide early on that they want to keep Strasburg, making all of this a moot point.

With Scherzer already locked in for top dollar, though, and the possibility of inking another starter for far less than Strasburg will likely command when he hits free agency next year, this feels like a move Washington will seriously consider.

Last December, Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post outlined the unlikelihood of the Nationals re-upping Strasburg after the 2016 season:

Strasburg‘s agent is Scott Boras, who lives to set new contract records and usually represents players who agree with that view. The result: sayonara scenarios. [Owners the Lerner family] better not think they can use the money they are “saving” on Zimmermann or [Ian] Desmond to sign Strasburg a year from now because, in my view, a deal done on that schedule will never get done.

So that’s the argument, boiled down: Your franchise is in turmoil after a bitterly disappointing season. Strasburg is probably leaving for big money next year anyway. Shop him now and get something back.

If the Nats buy into that line of thinking, suitors will be circling early and often. The pitching market will grind to a halt. And an already-fascinating offseason will become even more compelling.

All statistics current as of Oct. 28 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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Left searching for answers after their talent-laden roster failed to make the postseason, the Washington Nationals have apparently begun considering putting ace Stephen Strasburg on the trade block.

Continue for updates. 

Nats Thinking About Pre-Emptive Strasburg Deal

Sunday, Oct. 18

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reported the Nationals are “retooling,” and moving Strasburg could be part of a series of moves this winter. Strasburg, 27, went 11-7 with a 3.46 ERA and 1.11 WHIP this season while being limited to 23 starts due to injury. Mostly horrible before the All-Star break, he posted a 1.90 ERA and struck out 92 batters in 66.1 innings in his final 10 starts.

“I learned to be more aware of my thoughts out there,” Strasburg said, per James Wagner of the Washington Post. “There are times in the game when you can kind of let your focus slip just for a split second. And I made it a point to not let that happen, to just focus on each pitch and just let everything I’ve got go on that individual pitch and turn the page.”

Strasburg was one of a select few positives in the second half for Washington, which finished a disappointing 83-79. Manager Matt Williams has already been let go, and management may look to shake up a roster that was seen as a spring training World Series favorite.

Strasburg’s a natural for the trade block simply due to his contractual situation. He can become a free agent after next season, at which point he’ll likely command a nine-figure contract. Washington already has Max Scherzer locked into a long-term contract and could choose to re-sign Jordan Zimmermann this winter over paying the Strasburg premium. Zimmermann, a consistent fixture in the rotation, will almost certainly come at a cheaper cost now than Strasburg a year from now.

If the Nats could keep Zimmermann and get a big prospect haul for Strasburg, it might be in their best interest to make a move. 

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter

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