Washington Nationals: Stephen Strasburg Suffers Setback

The Washing Nationals received some bad news when Stephen Strasburg’s bullpen session had to be cut short.

The Washington Nationals are in the thick of the postseason race and are having to manage without one of their aces. Stephen Strasburg has struggled with injuries consistently throughout his career and has gone down yet again at a very inopportune time. Not to say that there is ever a good time for a player to get hurt, but Strasburg’s latest injury came when his team needed him most.

Strasburg was scheduled to throw 35 pitches on Monday in a bullpen session that got cut three or four pitches short. Toward the end of the session Strasburg alerted the Nationals staff that he was feeling discomfort and he was quickly shut down to avoid any further injury.

When asked about the setback, Nationals manager Dusty Baker shrugged it off as no big deal. For Nationals fans it has to be a bit concerning, however, when you consider that Strasburg has had an extended time to recover and was throwing upwards of two innings’ worth of non-stress bullpen pitches.

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The setback has to cast some doubt on Strasburg’s ability to come back any time soon and may make fans a bit concerned about his ability to stay healthy in the future.  Strasburg has struggled to consistently be the ace that fans thought he would be when he first came up to the big leagues.

Along with those struggles have been a lot of health issues including not pitching in games due to the heat. Overall he has not been a very durable player and may be giving the Nationals some cause for concern considering the large contract extension he was just handed this season.

Strasburg is a Washington National for a while and is going to have to do a better job of staying healthy if he hopes to make his contract worth it. He was finally pitching like the ace he was thought to be this season and having a great season before the injury cut it short.

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While he was aiming to join the team if they advanced in the postseason, it now looks doubtful he will take part in the Nationals’ playoff run this season unless he was moved to the bullpen. The Nationals’ first concern will be moving on to the next series, and to do that they will have to beat the Dodgers tomorrow night in Game 5.