Nationals Ace In The Hole: Scherzer or Strasburg?

The Washington Nationals have a pair of aces in Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg, and one of them might help your 2019 contender.

In case it wasn’t obvious before the Broken Nose Game on Thursday night – the Washington Nationals are not trading Max Scherzer.

There’s a legitimate question as to whether or not they’ll sell at all. Mike Rizzo does not like giving up on a season, and their internal messaging is clear: this season is not over.

The fact is, the Nationals love Max, and if he finishes out the remaining two years of his contract in a Nationals uniform, he likely becomes the first player to enter the Hall of Fame with a Curly W on his cap.

Go to any ballpark in the majors and there are flags with retired numbers, statues of iconic greats, reminders of franchise highs that both add to the ambiance of the ballpark experience and help animate a fanbase. The Nationals have the youngest fanbase in the majors at only 15-years-old. It can’t even drive yet.

Cubs fans know who they are. Red Sox fans have a clear sense of their identity. DC’s fanbase is still growing up. Without much history, there are very few iconic moments/victories/star players to help galvanize an already-transient fanbase. These fans need a role model.

So while Scherzer’s entering the Hall wearing a Nationals cap may not mean much to you – or to individual fans even in DC – his potential induction provides tremendous value to ownership and the eventual value of the franchise.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal already closed the book on this debate when he printed his quote from Rizzo:

"“I’ve never been closer to a player in my career. I drafted him in Arizona. I watched him grow up. We went hard after him (in free agency). We made him a promise that if you’re signing for seven years and you’re deferring all this money to help us win championships, we’re going to do everything we can to win.”"

Does that sound like someone positioning to move his ace? If he’s pandering, he’s exceptionally adept at it.

The one counterpoint would be that Scherzer locks into 10-and-5 rights at the end of this season, so if there were a time to ship him out for an Anthony-Davis-style bounty of prospects, this would be the year.

But the Nationals have another ace on their staff that prospective buyers should be targeting instead: Stephen Strasburg.

Frankly, due to the confluence of three particular mitigating factors, I don’t think the general public understands how dominant Strasburg’s been since the Nats drafted him first overall out of San Diego State in the 2009 draft.