Stephen Strasburg Innings Limit Update

There is no update. The team is keeping a tight lid on their true intention. Publicly, they are telling the world

the innings limits is still on. However, at 84 innings-pitched this season, Stephen Strasburg is more than half way to the 160 inning cap the Nationals placed on him. When the innings limit was first talked about, the Nationals had no way of knowing how competitive this year’s team would be, that they would be in first place heading into late June, and that Strasburg is building a case for himself as the National League Cy Young.

However, all those developments have not changed the “official” word on Strasburg’s innings limit. GM Mike Rizzo has vowed not to talk about the innings limit anymore because of the inundation of questions from reporters. But there is no doubt he’s talking about it with others in the front office, doctors, and probably even Strasburg’s agent.

Here’s the problem with an innings limit that looks like it will be shutting Strasburg down by mid August: If they make the postseason and want to fire him up again, they can’t. It would be more of a misuse of the young pitcher to ask him to sit a month or month and a half, then ask him to join the postseason roster. So the team won’t do that. Should the Nationals make the postseason, they have a real World Series shot. They need Strasburg.

Yet, the team has not and will not anytime soon, changed its public stance. The idea of an innings limit for young pitchers or pitchers coming off injury has become popular in recent years. However, there isn’t concrete evidence available to support this as a means to protect a pitcher’s durability. It’s an understandable plan in most cases though. Better to air on the side of caution than risk severe injury. See Mark Prior as an opposite example.

In our poll, it’s been a close vote, but the majority of you agree with the innings limit. Right now, that seems to be the route Washington will take, but come September, we’ll see.

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