The Washington Nationals inked 2009 No. 1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg to a lucrative deal to keep the ace in the nation’s capital for the long term.
The baseball world found out Monday evening that Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg was about to be a very wealthy man during his start against the Detroit Tigers. A report by the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes said Strasburg and the Nationals had agreed to a $175 million extension over seven years.
Strasburg was set to become a free agent at the end of the season. He will make $10.4 million this season. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the deal does include an opt-out in either the third our fourth year, so Strasburg, 27, would become a free agent again when he was either 31 or 32 years old.
Source: Strasburg deal includes opt-out after year three or four.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) May 10, 2016
The extension is the largest ever for a pitcher who has undergone Tommy John surgery. Strasburg had the surgery in September of 2010, during his rookie season. He returned to the mound for five starts in September of 2011 and finished with a 1.50 earned run average and 24 strikeouts in 24 innings pitched.
Since the beginning of 2012, Strasburg has been one of the best pitchers in baseball. From 2012 to 2015, Strasburg had the third highest strikeout rate (10.32 per nine innings pitched), the 11th highest strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.54), was 14th in batting average against (.227), 13th in fielding independent pitching (2.96) and 19th in ERA (3.17).
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Entering Monday’s start, Strasburg was 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA, 1.79 FIP and had the lowest home rate of his career—he had allowed a home run on 3.0 percent of his fly balls in 2016 while his career rate was 11 percent.