Stephen Strasburg has made just seven starts, and thrown just 26 2⁄3 innings, since the 33-year-old, 2009 No. 1 overall pick signed his 7-year/$245M free agent deal in D.C. after he’d briefly tested free agency following the Washington Nationals’ World Series win in 2019. It has been a difficult run for Strasburg since he and the club that drafted him made it to the top of the game.
Strasburg had season-ending surgery for carpal tunnel neuritis in his right hand in 2020, and in 2021, it was neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome which necessitated yet another surgical procedure (for the starter who had Tommy John surgery in 2010) and ended the 12th big league campaign of his career.