Most significant stories of 2023: Strasburg inches toward the end

We’ve reached the final week of the year, so it’s time to look back at the Nationals’ most significant stories of 2023. We continue the series today with the inevitable (though still not official) end of Stephen Strasburg’s career …

As a new crop of Nationals players embarked on a new year in West Palm Beach some 10 months ago, it was impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. More specifically, the prominently located locker that still bore the same nameplate, number and uniform it did when the franchise first opened the facility in 2017.

The only thing missing: The player who has always used that locker.

Stephen Strasburg never reported for spring training. He never reported to the clubhouse at Nationals Park, either, at least not during the times when the entire team (and media members) were there. He was – and still is – technically a part of the team. But he has zero tangible presence anymore after an agonizing year that confirmed what everyone hoped wouldn’t be true: His pitching career is over.

Strasburg made one final attempt to build his body and his arm up for the rigors of major-league pitching last winter. But once he attempted to pitch off a bullpen mound, the nerve pain in his shoulder and arm returned, and that was the sign he and the Nats regrettably knew meant the end of a storied-yet-unsatisfying career.

“You’re talking about one of the best big-game pitchers that’s ever pitched,” general manager Mike Rizzo said, his eyes welling up, as he discussed Strasburg’s status in February. “The best big-game pitcher the Nationals have ever had, and anywhere in baseball. You talk about an ultra-competitor, wasn’t afraid to take the ball in the toughest and most unique situations and perform admirably. We built this franchise on the back of him. I just feel bad that he can’t relish into the end of his career gracefully. He just feels terrible about it.”

Strasburg hasn’t spoken publicly in more than a year now, not since late in the 2022 season, when his attempt to return from the previous summer’s thoracic outlet surgery resulted in one big-league start at Miami but then a return trip to the injured list with a stress reaction in his ribs.

The 35-year-old right-hander has been through the full gamut of emotions since then, though, according to those who have spoken to him. He at times was determined to make it back to the mound again, even if he knew he wouldn’t be the same pitcher he once was. He then was resigned to his fate, conceding over the summer it wasn’t going to happen and making joint plans with the Nationals to announce his retirement. He has since turned sour toward some members of Nats ownership, with the financial details of his exit now in dispute, putting a formal announcement on hold for months, with no idea how or when it will end, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Strasburg – who is still owed about $105 million over the final three years of the seven-year, $245 million contract he signed in December 2019, two months after opting out of the final four years of his previous $175 million deal – thought he and the Nationals had reached a settlement that would allow him to officially retire without forfeiting the remaining salary. Some in club ownership disagreed with the settlement terms, and so plans for his early-September announcement were shelved.

The matter was sent to Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association, Rizzo revealed earlier this month, but a source familiar with the process said the Nationals and Strasburg were informed it’s ultimately up to them to work out an arrangement on their own.

With no settlement in place, the Nats are required to use a 40-man roster spot on Strasburg throughout the offseason and most of spring training. If the situation remains unresolved at that point, he would go back on the 60-day injured list for the season, clearing the 40-man roster spot.

Still unclear: Would Strasburg be required to report to spring training, or at least to demonstrate that he’s still attempting to rehab from his injury, if he hasn’t officially retired?

Suffice it to say, nobody is satisfied with the situation as it currently exists. And there is concern the relationship between Strasburg and the Nationals has been severely damaged, perhaps keeping him from participating in any events to recognize his career or even to help work with the organization’s current pitchers as they progress.

“The bottom line is: Stephen Strasburg’s one of ours,” Rizzo said this month. “He’s a pillar of the organization. His name’s going to be in the Ring of Honor someday. And I love the guy. So that’s where I leave it.”

Nobody disputes any of that. But nobody knows when that honor will finally be able to take place.