Washington Nationals news & notes: Stephen Strasburg officially retired; Nats lose 3rd in a row; 2nd straight to Phillies…

Notes and quotes from Saturday in the nation’s capital…

With an update on the Nationals.com Transactions page, news of Stephen Strasburg’s official retirement became public, less than a year after a rumored ceremony ended up getting scrapped when negotiations on how exactly he’d end his career hit a snag.

The status update for the now-35-year-old, 2009 No. 1 overall pick comes 667 days after the 2019 World Series MVP threw his last pitch in a Nationals uniform on June 9th of ‘22.

Strasburg never fully recovered from a Thoracic Outlet Surgery in 2021 which the club and pitcher both hoped would get him back on the mound following a series of injuries, nerve issues and health concerns the starter suffered through in the years after he’d helped their club win the Fall Classic in ‘19. He signed a 7-year/$245M deal with the Nationals after their World Series win, but ended up making just eight starts and throwing just 31 ¹⁄₃ innings over the last five years.

According to report by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale last night, Strasburg, “still will receive the remaining $105 million owed from his original [7-year/$245M deal],” according to, “… a person with direct knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports,” who spoke on the condition of anonymity, “… because the team hadn’t announced the terms of Strasburg’s retirement.

Photo by Kelly Gavin/MLB Photos via Getty Images

GM and President of Baseball Ops Mike Rizzo spoke about the need to find a resolution over the winter, telling reporters at the Winter Meetings he didn’t want to discuss “the Strasburg situation” while acknowledging that having him take up a 40-Man roster spot was obviously not ideal. He was placed on the 60-Day IL again before Opening Day.

“But these things are above your and my pay grade,” Rizzo said.

“We’re going to let the Players’ Association and Major League Baseball sort this thing out. The bottom line is, is Stephen Strasburg’s one of ours. He’s a pillar of the organization.

“His name’s going to be in the Ring of Honor some day. And I love the guy. So that’s where I leave it.”

Talking before the 2024 season opener, Rizzo, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman in an article on Strasburg’s retirement last night, said both sides were still talking as of early this spring and trying to sort things out.

“‘We’re discussing things with Strasburg’s camp, and we hope we get something settled with that, so we can embrace the man like he’s supposed to be embraced,’ Rizzo said March 12.”

According to Nightengale’s report, “… as part of [Strasburg’s] retirement deal, the contract was restructured to further increase the deferrals.”

“A formal announcement is still forthcoming,” Zuckerman wrote, “… but two sources familiar with the agreement confirmed it has been finalized with terms amenable to both the pitcher and the organization.”

More info when it’s available…

[ed. note – “Sorry to be that person, but ‘capital’, Stephen. All the best in retirement. Glad to have watched every one of your major league starts.”]

ABRAMS SCRATCHED:

CJ Abrams got thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double in the series opener with the Phillies on Friday night, and manager Davey Martinez expressed relief that though the decision to try for the extra bag was ill-advised, Abrams had seemingly avoided any injury on an awkward slide at second base.

“He had his head down, it was a base hit, we’re down three runs, I thought [Nats’ third base coach] Ricky Gutierrez did a good job not sending [Luis García home] right there, just we got the top of the order coming up. CJ had his head down and took off. He’s trying to be aggressive there. I’m glad he didn’t get hurt, because he slid kind of funny.”

Abrams was originally penciled in as part of the Nationals’ lineup for the second of three with the Phillies in D.C. on Saturday, but he was scratched a couple hours before the first pitch.

“He’s got a bone-bruise on his pinky, non-throwing hand, from sliding yesterday,” Martinez explained after the game, a 5-2 loss to the Phillies.

Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images

“He came in and he said he felt sore. I didn’t want to push him. He got X-rays, they were negative. So he’s going to be day-to-day, hopefully tomorrow he’ll feel a little better.”

Abrams did finish Friday’s game, after the slide at second, and Martinez said he felt it a bit.

“I saw him take one swing yesterday and it kind of looked weird, but he came in today and he said he was really sore just kind of gripping the bat — so he tried to hit a little bit and he said the pressure of swinging like this with his pinky here [in his grip] bothered him, so I said, ‘Hey, let’s not chance it. Give you a day see how you’re doing tomorrow.”

His level of concern?

“Let’s see tomorrow. Right now the hope is he can play tomorrow, if he can’t play tomorrow, then I’ll be a little worried.”

ANOTHER LOSS:

Bryce Harper, in Davey Martinez’s opinion, just missed hitting an 0-1 curve up in the zone out to center the first time up on Saturday, so when he came up again with two out and a pair of runners on base in the third, the skipper called on pitcher Jake Irvin to walk Philly’s slugger in favor of a matchup with catcher J.T. Realmuto, who fell behind 0-2 but hit an 82 MPH curve Irvin left up out to left-center for a three-run blast which made it 4-0 Phillies in what ended up a 5-2 win for the visitors in the nation’s capital.

Irvin retired 9 of the next 10 batters to get through six with five hits, one walk, and four runs allowed. He finished the outing at 93 pitches overall, 58 of them strikes, with nine swinging and 17 called strikes on the day. But that one hanging curve to Realmuto stuck in his craw.

“The outing as a whole was really good. Just one really bad pitch, and that’s baseball,” Irvin told reporters, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman after the game.

“He was one pitch away from having an unbelievable outing,” Martinez said.

“But I thought he threw the ball really well. He went six innings, 93 pitches, but he threw the ball really well, so we just got to keep him right there.”

His decision to walk Harper to get to Realmuto?

“The numbers, for me, matched up,” Martinez explained. “And we’ve seen what Bryce can do to us. The first ball, he just missed. On any other given day in the summertime, that can be trouble. So yeah, I thought the matchup was with Realmuto, but like I said, he had two strikes on him, it’s just unfortunate he didn’t get it to where he wanted it to.”

If he’d just bounced the curveball though?

“He was trying to bounce it, 0-2, he didn’t quite get it there, but I told him, I said, ‘Overall, Jake you got to be proud of what you did. That’s not an easy lineup to go through and he went through those guys four times and did really well. So let’s build off of that one and understand if you want to bounce it, bounce it, make sure it hits the dirt.”