Editor’s Note: This is the latest piece in our ongoing 40-man breakdown series. You can read more here.

Stephen Strasburg

Position: Starting Pitcher

Current Status: Basically Retired

How Acquired: Drafted number one overall by the Washington Nationals in the 2009 MLB draft.

2023 Grade: N/A

2024 Opening Day Projection: IL

2023 Stats: N/A

Analysis: This style of analysis doesn’t quite lend itself to a situation like Stephen Strasburg’s.  Strasburg hasn’t pitched in the 2022 season where he appeared in one game going 4.2 innings.  He has a debilitating injury that has stopped him from being able to pitch.  For a Nationals legend like Strasburg, it’s a shame to see him leave the league like this but it comes with its own set of issues that the Nats need to handle.

The Nationals signed Strasburg to a massive 7-year, $245 million deal following his World Series MVP season in 2019. Late last season, there were rumblings that he was going to retire and the Nationals would pay out the rest of the contract like they should for a franchise legend.

Instead, a couple of days later it turned ugly, leaving us in the position that we are in today with Stras.  The Nationals, for reasons unknown, became stingy and slightly frayed a relationship that would have only been a positive one for both the current roster construction and the team’s future.  It can only be good to have a positive relationship with the franchise stars of the past.

For now, his contract runs until the 2026 season where at that point he will presumably retire from baseball.  Unless the Nationals work something out with Strasburg both of them are stuck in a kind of roster limbo where he will have to be placed on the 40-man each offseason.