Call to the pen
Fansided

Nationals Ace In The Hole: Scherzer or Strasburg?

By TC Zencka

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 19: Starting pitcher Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals looks on against the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of a double header at Nationals Park on June 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 19: Starting pitcher Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals looks on against the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of a double header at Nationals Park on June 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 8
Next
(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /

Don’t Underestimate Stras

Here are a few more numbers prospective buyers should know: Strasburg averages 10.6 K/9 for his career. His career FIP is a gold-standard 2.94, and this season he became the fastest pitcher – ever – to reach 1500 career K’s.

No, he won’t charm your socks off, and yes, he misses a start here or there, but the reward is worth the risk. He’s one of a handful of pitchers with the potential to power a team through a postseason series.

Which should already be a bullet point on his resume. In the midst of Washington’s playoff disappointments and 2012’s Restgate, Strasburg’s dominance over the defending champion Cubs in 2017 gets swept under the rug.

Make no mistake: he was an ace in this series, going 14 innings of playoff baseball without surrendering an earned run. The Cubs total offense in the 2017 NLDS against Strasburg amounted to just 5 singles, 1 double, and 3 walks.

In two starts, he struck out 22 Cubs in 14 innings and pitched to a 0.00 ERA. He went 1-1, giving up two unearned runs that basically amounted to an error and back-to-back singles by Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. But the “proof is in the pudding” dictum lives on in playoff baseball, so Strasburg’s heroics in Game Four don’t exist in our memory. Only Game Five remains, and the Nationals lost that game.

A mid-season trade would give Strasburg the opportunity to rewrite the script.

As for the Nationals, they remain star-studded with – at the very least – a transcendent superstar on both sides of the ball in Scherzer and Juan Soto. But an early-season injury to Trea Turner and Trevor Rosenthal‘s bizarro implosion revealed the degree to which the depth of the upper reaches of the organization is lacking. They’re eight games behind the Braves.

If the Nats cleave Strasburg from the docket, they’ll be in an excellent buying position for next season to re-load (Gerrit Cole, Zack Wheeler, Madison Bumgarner), while the prospects returned can fill in some of the empty air around their extremely young core of Soto, Victor Robles and Carter Kieboom (or serve as cannon fodder for Rizzo’s inevitable mid-season bullpen splurge).

There are plenty of teams that would be interested in Strasburg should the Nats make him available, but there’s only one perfect fit. First, the runners-up.

Home/Washington Nationals