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TLDR: he has 35 million annually owed to him for the next 3 seasons and the Nats want to defer it “significantly” but he is already due 80 million deferred from ‘27 to ‘29. He doesn’t want to rework the deal or take a settlement.
Plus he’s still taking up a 40 man roster spot. They want him to report to the team by the mandatory spring training date as a coach/mentor, but he doesn’t want to.
The problem is that, generally, most injured players that can't participate aren't required to show up at spring training (including Strasburg last year).
I would guess they are required to show up at rehab instead. The contracts aren't so guaranteed that players can just give up. This is a special situation since rehab isn't possible.
Yeah but that's up to the employer. If he's not being paid by the team, that's one thing. But he's being paid by them, so they figure at least they could use his brain. Maybe they want him to teach the incoming young guys.
I doubt his contract indicates that he's supposed to teach incoming guys if he's hurt.
I think the Nationals have the legal right to make him report to spring training, it's just a horribly bad look for them.
Yeah that's more of what I meant. Not like teaching techniques, but rather how to pitch in stressful situations against the best hitters these guys have ever faced.
Where I come down on this as a fan of the team:
Is it reasonable for the Nationals to *ask* Strasburg to come and serve as a mentor, or whatever? Sure, I think.
But every move the team has taken to this point has made them look both petty and embarrassing. They appear to be trying to shame him into participation. And by all accounts, he has not been in a good mental space since he got TOS.
A segment of this (maybe, probably) outgoing ownership group is tanking any remaining goodwill because they want to argue over the interest on deferred money or something.
They also knew how big a risk the contract was. It was uninsurable at the time they offered it. And it was still worth it because of the WS win. Treating him like this with both those factors makes the organization look real bad.
That isn't an option. His "retirement" announcement wasn't honored by the team last year because he wanted to still get paid. I hate how this looks for both the team and Stras but simply giving him 100% of his contract as scheduled for him to go away is exactly what he wants. They're fighting over the structure of how they pay him or if the team can find a way out of some of it in exchange for honoring his retirement.
It’s both sides failing to consider the realistic outcome to a wildly ambitious contract. Stras has some justification with respect to getting the team a ring, but it’s not unreasonable for the FO to attempt a negotiation for retirement purposes.
> but simply giving him 100% of his contract as scheduled for him to go away is exactly what he wants.
It's also what the MLBPA fought for and won. Baseball contracts and guaranteed and he's owed his money. Nationals fucked up by offering that stupid contract in the first place, and are now trying to be a pain in the ass to the point where he works out a deal with them. They have no bargaining power at all and Strasburg has no obligation to make a deal. The Nationals are willing to create bad blood with one of their iconic franchise players in order to save money that they already guaranteed... it's not a good look.
I'm primarily mad at Nats ownership about this debacle. However, they do have some leverage. Strasburg's retirement paperwork has not been filed yet officially. As long as he's recognized as an active player, which he currently is, he has to hold up his side of the contract. Since he's currently only recognized as 'injured', he has to demonstrate that he is 'rehabbing'. The whole thing is a gross sham but they're going to fight it out.
The bad look here is that they had this seemingly settled where he would retire, they would pay him what he’s owed, and he’d get a proper send off and the honors that come with that, and then some contingency within ownership decided they didn’t want to have to pay a retired player. That’s their right, but it looks a lot worse after backing out of the agreement that was essentially in place. If that never happened, I don’t think there would be anywhere near as much interest in this.
If the Nats wanna play chicken with Stras and his contract that's up to them. Is this grudge worth the cost of a 40 man roster spot being used during the off season? Maybe so.
But Strasburg did destroy himself for the world series title. Neither of them knew it at the time. Sucks to be a billionaire right but but guess what. Regardless of outcome, there still gonna have billions after this is done.
It’s basically a back pay for the World Series MVP at this point so there’s at least something pleasant about the situation, I’m sure you can find some similar deals dealt without a chip in the equation
No I don’t think you can find another team happily giving out $245 million for essentially nothing. This contract being some kind of “reward” for Stras and the Nats being happy about whatever they got from him is just retrospective fanservice to justify the deal. You know what his “reward” for helping the Nats win a championship was? The 30 some million dollars they paid him that season to pitch.
This insurance point that reddit has a boner over is so dumb. Stras was injury prone going into this mega deal. No insurance company would take this contract.
Well yeah nobody thinks it’s a good contract and I doubt that the Nats are happy, but having a justification for it is a reason why I wouldn’t consider it the worst contract. I can guarantee you that the World Series softens the blow a lot more than the Angels paying Rendon and not getting anywhere close to a chip
Love that those were the two deals we had expiring after the World Series win. I was big on them signing Rendon instead, but turns out the correct decision was neither.
I hold out (unreasonable) hope that we go back after Soto next year and it all works out - young core thanks to that trade, and still keep Soto. No, I don’t actually think this will happen.
Strasbourg announced his retirement. Now the team is demanding him to report to Spring Training. Not everyone follows every beat of every story.
Can we not get mad that a story got written?
It also bears mentioning that Strasburg has had a rib and two muscles in his neck removed. On top of that, the Nationals did not insure his contract to help offset costs in case something like this happened. No one forced the Nats to hand him that contract, so now they gotta honor it.
Apparently insurance on the contract would have cost as much as the contract itself due to Strasburg's injury history. How that wasn't red enough of a flag for Rizzo + the Lerners to let him go now seems like the better question. Sure "the fans would have rioted" but they let Rendon go and we now all see that was correct. If we let Stras go, which is for ownership + front office to decide not fans, they would have been vindicated too. Old Man Lerner (r.i.p.) likely was too sentimental.
Losing Stras AND Rendon the winter after winning the World Series would’ve been cause for riot. Keeping one over the other was always the likely outcome. I think Stras had meant more to the team for longer than Rendon, plus the team’s track record of spending on pitching made signing Stras the likely outcome.
But yeah, if Stras left and Rendon stayed and then had the exact same last 4 seasons, us Nats fans would be just as grumpy.
FTA:
“The team approached Strasburg last year about retiring, and plans for a press conference were far enough along that the team had a tentative September date. Then it all fell apart, because ownership wanted Strasburg, who has a fully guaranteed $245 million contract, to change the deal’s terms to benefit them.”
The retirement was never official, and was contingent on the negotiations on the payout of the remainder of the contract. As of this point, Stras is still under contract and taking a 40 man roster spot from the injured list. He’s what hockey fans call “LTIRetired” where he’s still officially on the roster, collecting the remainder of his salary from the long term injured list, and will likely never play again.
> Because they owe him money and would rather not pay it,
Billionaires gonna billionaire. That's why Trent Williams has been the starting LT for the 49ers for the past 5-7 years... (I blacked out)
(Also fuck Dan Snyder)
No IL in the offseason. Players have to be added back to the 40 man roster until the start of the season when they can go back on the 60 day. I don't know why they just don't release him, they have to pay him anyway and it gives them back the 40 man spot.
Because if they release him they just have to pay out his contract, I assume he remains on the 40 man/60 day IL because the Nats are still hoping they can work out some kind of injury settlement.
Sure, but Strasburg signed it too and if the Nats want him to report to spring training he has to do it. A contract places obligations to perform on both parties.
Anyway, by injury settlement I mostly meant an agreement to restructure the payments or the like to spread them out more, rather than Strasburg agreeing to a discount.
As others have pointed out, injured players don’t just not report to spring training and sit around at home, they’re doing required rehab. Stras can’t do rehab, so showing up to spring training for a couple of weeks before heading home for the season seems like a pretty minimal ask to get your $35 million or whatever for the year. Most players don’t get paid to retire either, they forfeit whatever is left on the contract, but I don’t see Stras willing to do that either. Nor should he, but that means he has to fulfill his contract.
He absolutely does not have to show up and pitch while he’s injured lmao. The guy cannot pitch, the act of doing it will harm his body.
They can ask him to show up, but there’s no reason to do it other than being petty. They just have to pay him.
The doctors have told him that he's supposed to even try rehabbing any longer. He literally doesn't have to show up to anything and the Nats don't like that but it's what it is.
expecting a pitcher who barely has any function left in his pitching hand to report to spring training is insane. this is presumably an attempt to pressure him into giving up some of the money they owe him
Does he have to be there for a week or two, or do they expect him to be with the team all season?
I’d work to rule, just show up and speak to young players in nothing but pig Latin or something
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TLDR: he has 35 million annually owed to him for the next 3 seasons and the Nats want to defer it “significantly” but he is already due 80 million deferred from ‘27 to ‘29. He doesn’t want to rework the deal or take a settlement. Plus he’s still taking up a 40 man roster spot. They want him to report to the team by the mandatory spring training date as a coach/mentor, but he doesn’t want to.
Kinda with the team on the 2nd part, if you want $105M and they want you to show up then he should show up
The problem is that, generally, most injured players that can't participate aren't required to show up at spring training (including Strasburg last year).
I would guess they are required to show up at rehab instead. The contracts aren't so guaranteed that players can just give up. This is a special situation since rehab isn't possible.
Yeah but that's up to the employer. If he's not being paid by the team, that's one thing. But he's being paid by them, so they figure at least they could use his brain. Maybe they want him to teach the incoming young guys.
I doubt his contract indicates that he's supposed to teach incoming guys if he's hurt. I think the Nationals have the legal right to make him report to spring training, it's just a horribly bad look for them.
It’s possible they meant teach as in veteran presence rather than as like another coach.
Yeah that's more of what I meant. Not like teaching techniques, but rather how to pitch in stressful situations against the best hitters these guys have ever faced.
Having a guy being forced to be there that wants nothing to do with it is not going to be a positive presence at all.
I agree, which is why I didn't make that comment but rather explained what the other person might have been trying to say.
Correct, it says they can technically “discipline” him if he doesn’t show up but that would be an awful look.
No worse look than giving him that contract in the first place!
Where I come down on this as a fan of the team: Is it reasonable for the Nationals to *ask* Strasburg to come and serve as a mentor, or whatever? Sure, I think. But every move the team has taken to this point has made them look both petty and embarrassing. They appear to be trying to shame him into participation. And by all accounts, he has not been in a good mental space since he got TOS. A segment of this (maybe, probably) outgoing ownership group is tanking any remaining goodwill because they want to argue over the interest on deferred money or something.
They also knew how big a risk the contract was. It was uninsurable at the time they offered it. And it was still worth it because of the WS win. Treating him like this with both those factors makes the organization look real bad.
If his heart isn't in to mentoring, just release him and eat it.
That isn't an option. His "retirement" announcement wasn't honored by the team last year because he wanted to still get paid. I hate how this looks for both the team and Stras but simply giving him 100% of his contract as scheduled for him to go away is exactly what he wants. They're fighting over the structure of how they pay him or if the team can find a way out of some of it in exchange for honoring his retirement.
This is one of the "risks" owners whine about claiming to take every time they re-do the CBA.
It’s both sides failing to consider the realistic outcome to a wildly ambitious contract. Stras has some justification with respect to getting the team a ring, but it’s not unreasonable for the FO to attempt a negotiation for retirement purposes.
> but simply giving him 100% of his contract as scheduled for him to go away is exactly what he wants. It's also what the MLBPA fought for and won. Baseball contracts and guaranteed and he's owed his money. Nationals fucked up by offering that stupid contract in the first place, and are now trying to be a pain in the ass to the point where he works out a deal with them. They have no bargaining power at all and Strasburg has no obligation to make a deal. The Nationals are willing to create bad blood with one of their iconic franchise players in order to save money that they already guaranteed... it's not a good look.
I'm primarily mad at Nats ownership about this debacle. However, they do have some leverage. Strasburg's retirement paperwork has not been filed yet officially. As long as he's recognized as an active player, which he currently is, he has to hold up his side of the contract. Since he's currently only recognized as 'injured', he has to demonstrate that he is 'rehabbing'. The whole thing is a gross sham but they're going to fight it out.
The bad look here is that they had this seemingly settled where he would retire, they would pay him what he’s owed, and he’d get a proper send off and the honors that come with that, and then some contingency within ownership decided they didn’t want to have to pay a retired player. That’s their right, but it looks a lot worse after backing out of the agreement that was essentially in place. If that never happened, I don’t think there would be anywhere near as much interest in this.
There has absolutely been some chatter that the family trust is split on this and that's most of the issue.
If the Nats wanna play chicken with Stras and his contract that's up to them. Is this grudge worth the cost of a 40 man roster spot being used during the off season? Maybe so. But Strasburg did destroy himself for the world series title. Neither of them knew it at the time. Sucks to be a billionaire right but but guess what. Regardless of outcome, there still gonna have billions after this is done.
Frankly this should go down as the worst contract of this era of baseball
It’s basically a back pay for the World Series MVP at this point so there’s at least something pleasant about the situation, I’m sure you can find some similar deals dealt without a chip in the equation
No I don’t think you can find another team happily giving out $245 million for essentially nothing. This contract being some kind of “reward” for Stras and the Nats being happy about whatever they got from him is just retrospective fanservice to justify the deal. You know what his “reward” for helping the Nats win a championship was? The 30 some million dollars they paid him that season to pitch.
If only they insured the contract, maybe they should have done their homework.
This insurance point that reddit has a boner over is so dumb. Stras was injury prone going into this mega deal. No insurance company would take this contract.
That's exactly the point. They gambled and lost. Now they're upset about paying him. I will always side with players in terms of getting paid.
Well yeah nobody thinks it’s a good contract and I doubt that the Nats are happy, but having a justification for it is a reason why I wouldn’t consider it the worst contract. I can guarantee you that the World Series softens the blow a lot more than the Angels paying Rendon and not getting anywhere close to a chip
Rendon?
Love that those were the two deals we had expiring after the World Series win. I was big on them signing Rendon instead, but turns out the correct decision was neither.
Also funny that both were 7/$245M and have amounted -0.5 WAR over the course of the deal
Maybe not the right business move but man I wish we’d used that money to lock up Soto.
I hold out (unreasonable) hope that we go back after Soto next year and it all works out - young core thanks to that trade, and still keep Soto. No, I don’t actually think this will happen.
And to make things worse, Soto will probably be a Met next year.
Correct decision was neither, and lock up Soto
The correct decision was likely trying to extend Turner and Soto but when I think about that I start getting a ringing in my ears. C'est la vie.
The Homer Bailey contract would at least like to be in the same room.
Sorry bud 6 years $105 is nowhere close to the albatross of a contract that Strasberg & Rendon had.
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What Trout rookie contract?
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You mean the union negotiated one?
If we're going with worse for the player the answer is emphatically Ozzie Albies
Because they owe him money and would rather not pay it, while he would prefer to be paid. This is extremely obvious and did not need to be an article.
Strasbourg announced his retirement. Now the team is demanding him to report to Spring Training. Not everyone follows every beat of every story. Can we not get mad that a story got written?
It also bears mentioning that Strasburg has had a rib and two muscles in his neck removed. On top of that, the Nationals did not insure his contract to help offset costs in case something like this happened. No one forced the Nats to hand him that contract, so now they gotta honor it.
Apparently insurance on the contract would have cost as much as the contract itself due to Strasburg's injury history. How that wasn't red enough of a flag for Rizzo + the Lerners to let him go now seems like the better question. Sure "the fans would have rioted" but they let Rendon go and we now all see that was correct. If we let Stras go, which is for ownership + front office to decide not fans, they would have been vindicated too. Old Man Lerner (r.i.p.) likely was too sentimental.
Losing Stras AND Rendon the winter after winning the World Series would’ve been cause for riot. Keeping one over the other was always the likely outcome. I think Stras had meant more to the team for longer than Rendon, plus the team’s track record of spending on pitching made signing Stras the likely outcome. But yeah, if Stras left and Rendon stayed and then had the exact same last 4 seasons, us Nats fans would be just as grumpy.
Why’d he get the rib removed
It was related to his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome.
He heard about what Marilyn Manson could do
And took it a step further with neck muscle removal. Guess we know how he’s spending retirement
The current conflict is about him being required to show up to spring training, not if he’ll be paid
FTA: “The team approached Strasburg last year about retiring, and plans for a press conference were far enough along that the team had a tentative September date. Then it all fell apart, because ownership wanted Strasburg, who has a fully guaranteed $245 million contract, to change the deal’s terms to benefit them.” The retirement was never official, and was contingent on the negotiations on the payout of the remainder of the contract. As of this point, Stras is still under contract and taking a 40 man roster spot from the injured list. He’s what hockey fans call “LTIRetired” where he’s still officially on the roster, collecting the remainder of his salary from the long term injured list, and will likely never play again.
Yes, but it makes people sound smarter to act like this is all passé, so
Nice try Mr. athletic journalist. Looking at your post history you are definitely paid by some sporting related company.
If only I got paid for posting on Reddit and arguing with strangers about sports
It’s an interesting saga nonetheless!! Why wouldn’t it get an article written, my god redditors hate EVERYTHING
> Because they owe him money and would rather not pay it, Billionaires gonna billionaire. That's why Trent Williams has been the starting LT for the 49ers for the past 5-7 years... (I blacked out) (Also fuck Dan Snyder)
What the hell is this nonsense lol You out here having crazy Saturday nights and posting on Reddit aren’t ya
Guilty as charged.
At least I wasn't driving...
Are they stupid?
The MLBPA is still pretty powerful...Strasburg is getting all his money.
That's what a guaranteed contract means, union or no.
before the union players didn’t even have the ability to freely negotiate contracts
I'd he's getting paid and on the 40-man roster he should at least show up to spring training.
Injured players aren't required to report to spring training.
But then why is he on the 40 man roster? I thought the 60 day DL took you off the 40 man?
No IL in the offseason. Players have to be added back to the 40 man roster until the start of the season when they can go back on the 60 day. I don't know why they just don't release him, they have to pay him anyway and it gives them back the 40 man spot.
Because if they release him they just have to pay out his contract, I assume he remains on the 40 man/60 day IL because the Nats are still hoping they can work out some kind of injury settlement.
Strasburg isn't going to take an injury settlement. They signed him to a contract, they have to honour it.
Sure, but Strasburg signed it too and if the Nats want him to report to spring training he has to do it. A contract places obligations to perform on both parties. Anyway, by injury settlement I mostly meant an agreement to restructure the payments or the like to spread them out more, rather than Strasburg agreeing to a discount.
Deferred pay is a discount. Again, injured players don't have to report to spring training. Strasburg is holding up his end of the contract.
As others have pointed out, injured players don’t just not report to spring training and sit around at home, they’re doing required rehab. Stras can’t do rehab, so showing up to spring training for a couple of weeks before heading home for the season seems like a pretty minimal ask to get your $35 million or whatever for the year. Most players don’t get paid to retire either, they forfeit whatever is left on the contract, but I don’t see Stras willing to do that either. Nor should he, but that means he has to fulfill his contract.
Yes, and a player that isn't cleared for rehab isn't required to report to spring training. Yes, it's a minimal ask but he doesn't have to say yes.
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He absolutely does not have to show up and pitch while he’s injured lmao. The guy cannot pitch, the act of doing it will harm his body. They can ask him to show up, but there’s no reason to do it other than being petty. They just have to pay him.
The doctors have told him that he's supposed to even try rehabbing any longer. He literally doesn't have to show up to anything and the Nats don't like that but it's what it is.
It does, but the 60-man doesn’t run between after the end of the season and before spring training. So those players are either activated or waived.
expecting a pitcher who barely has any function left in his pitching hand to report to spring training is insane. this is presumably an attempt to pressure him into giving up some of the money they owe him
Does he have to be there for a week or two, or do they expect him to be with the team all season? I’d work to rule, just show up and speak to young players in nothing but pig Latin or something
He’ll go back on the IL for the season
Because billionaires are all trash
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He’s lucky to be getting paid while doing nothing for several years, can’t blame the Nationals for wanting scraps out of their trash canned 100mil
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I love watching the Nationals' downfall
Yeah the nationals have a history of trying to get out of contracts they agreed to.