Washington Nationals: 3 best current contracts, ranked

1. Max Scherzer 7 years, $191.4M

Max Scherzer was coming off back to back seasons of leading the American League in wins for the Detroit Tigers when he hit free agency in the offseason prior to 2015. He stayed on the open market until late January when the Washington Nationals surprisingly swooped in and signed him for 7 years, $210M.

At the time, the contract was the largest given to a pitcher and has since been eclipsed multiple times. Half of Scherzer’s seven-year deal with the Nationals is deferred money, meaning he’ll receive $15M per year for 14 years. The Nats have long been fans of deferred payments and have seen potential free agent targets walk away from deals insulted by the gesture. Not Scherzer.

In the five years of the deal thus far Scherzer has a record a 79-39 with an ERA of 2.74. He has finished in the top 5 in Cy Young voting all five years, including winning the award in ’16 and ’17 and finishing as a runner up in 2018. He led the league in strikeouts those three years and had 300 in ’18, eclipsing the 300 plateau for the first time in his career.

Scherzer was 3-0 in the Nationals postseason run and pitched five innings of two run ball in Game 7, keeping the team in the game until the offense could come back and take the lead. This performance came days after having to push his scheduled start because of a sore neck.

The Scherzer contract has paid for itself over and over and the Nats would be wise to engage him in a contract extension before his current contract expires after the 2021 season. The Washington Nationals have Corbin and Strasburg locked up for five and seven years respectively, and could bring back Scherzer to keep the trio together.