Now a week out from his mega-extension with the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg is physically back in D.C. to hold his press conference and have some laughs about it. Remember, Strasburg signed a seven-year, $245 million dollar contract to remain in Washington which was the largest deal ever given to a pitcher until Gerrit Cole signed with the Yankees a few days later for north of $300 million.
Equally important, Strasburg is saying some really nice things about being with the franchise who drafted him for the rest of his career.
Stephen Strasburg has spent his entire 10-year career with the Washington @Nationals, and he’s ready to spend the better part of another decade here in D.C. https://t.co/x2wRiHipEH
— WTOP (@WTOP) December 17, 2019
By comparison, Nats fans heard all this same stuff from Bryce Harper once. Then, Harper signed a 13-year deal of his own to play with a division rival. Still, one uniform means something to Strasburg.
“It’s really hard to come by in this game,” Strasburg said in his re-introduction to Washington Tuesday. “When you’re given an opportunity to be in one spot and grow as a person and a player, to be a part of an organization like this, you can’t really let those opportunities go by. It’s great for me to say that I am going to be a National for life.”
As time goes by, we will see if the Nationals made the right investment in the right member of the big three between Strasburg, Harper, and Anthony Rendon.
However, they got the guy who perhaps valued the city the most. And they still have Juan Soto under team control for a very long time.
