After more than two months of waiting and worrying and fretting and negotiating, Stephen Strasburg is finally a Washington National.
The 21-year-old phenom, considered one of the top amateur pitchers since the Major League Baseball draft was instituted in 1965, has signed a contract with Washington.
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According to industry sources, the deal is a major-league contract for four years and worth about $15.1 million, far surpassing the $10.5 million record bonus set by Mark Prior with the Chicago Cubs in 2001. The Nats drafted Strasburg No. 1 overall in Major League Baseball’s amateur draft in June.
Washington now possesses a right-handed pitcher with a fastball that can reach 100 mph and a devastating curveball that completely overmatched college hitters.
One year after failing to sign 2008 first-round pick Aaron Crow, the Nats closed a deal with Strasburg at 11:58 p.m. — or, to be precise, 77 seconds before Monday night’s midnight deadline expired.
“We didn’t even need that last minute,” cracked Nats team president Stan Kasten.
It made for a dramatic evening at the team’s headquarters at Nationals Park and at the Orange County, Calif., offices of Strasburg’s advisor, Scott Boras. As happened with Crow in 2008, the Nats would have lost Strasburg’s rights had he not signed by the deadline.
Aside from his pure skill, “[Strasburg has] a fierceness on the mound that really separates him from a lot of other pitchers that have his type of stuff,” said Nats acting general manager Mike Rizzo. “You put that package together and — barring injury — this kid should have a long and illustrious career.”
It was a momentous night for Washington, which is well on its way to a second consecutive 100-loss season and has seen attendance shrink in its second year at Nationals Park. The presence of Strasburg doesn’t guarantee an instant turnaround. It does, however, give the Nats a potential ace pitcher to anchor a starting rotation in desperate need of quality arms. Top prospect Jordan Zimmermann will undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday to repair a torn ligament in his right elbow and is likely out until 2011.
Strasburg was 13-1 with a 1.32 ERA in 109 innings at San Diego State as a junior. He also struck out 195 batters to lead all NCAA pitchers and won the Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top collegiate baseball player. The previous summer Strasburg was the lone college player to represent the United States at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
But there were fears that Boras was demanding a deal more common to established free agents or internationals stars on the open market – not a college player with no professional experience. In the end, those fears were unfounded, but Strasburg was still paid handsomely.
“The reason [Strasburg] signed is that he wanted to be in the big leagues. He wants to win a Cy Young Award. He wants to win championships here,” Rizzo said. “Money was a nice perk. But he’s here to pitch. He’s chomping at the bit to get on the mound … [and] I think he was getting a little tired of sitting around the house.”
Rizzo said no decision has been made if Strasburg will try to pitch again before the end of the season – in Washington or with its minor-league teams, where the season ends early next month. He is expected to fly to the District sometime later this week to meet with his future teammates, see the stadium and the city and meet with the media.
“One thing I will say — we have never been so determined to not have the No. 1 pick again,” Kasten said. “I never want to have to go through this work ever again.”
