Nationals owner Mark Lerner says team can’t afford Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon

The prime question as soon as Stephen Strasburg opted out of his contract was this: Could the Nationals afford to bring back Strasburg and Anthony Rendon? According to managing principal owner Mark Lerner, the answer is no.

“We really can only afford to have one of those two guys,” Lerner told Donald Dell in an exclusive interview. “They’re huge numbers. We already have a really large payroll to begin with.”

Lerner’s public stance suggesting Strasburg and Rendon is an either-or proposition for the defending World Series champions is new. Is it surprising? Not necessarily. Lerner could flatly state the organization is going to find a way to pay both. However, that’s poor negotiating. Being in between serves multiple needs: It keeps the door open on each player; it stirs the market without roiling it; it prepares fans for an outcome they don’t prefer.

Lerner has not hesitated to comment on pending and enormous free agent situations since becoming the more outward face of the team’s ownership group. His father, founding principal owner Ted Lerner, has stepped back, though remains the patriarchal voice on large expenditures. Here, like last year, Mark Lerner has answered early December questions about free agency with eyebrow-raising candor. His declaration about Strasburg and Rendon comes almost a year-to-the-day after he said about Bryce Harper, “I don’t really expect him to come back at this point. I think they’ve decided to move on.”

Well, this is one heck of a thing to announce when your season ticket holders are considering renewals….

Yankees to meet with Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg as team looks to upgrade rotation

The New York Yankees know their starting pitching held them back last season. To remedy that, the team will meet with the top two pitchers on the free-agent market.

The Yankees will sit down with both Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg over the next couple days, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Both players are represented by Scott Boras.

It’s believed that the Yankees will be more aggressive for the 29-year-old Cole, who they’ve coveted for years. While New York will make a play for Strasburg, many believe he’ll return to the Washington Nationals, according to Rosenthal.

The Yankees’ interest in both players shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Yankees won 103 games last season on the strength of their offense and bullpen. The team’s 117 wRC+ — an advanced metric that measures a team’s offensive production — ranked second last season. Their 4.08 bullpen ERA ranked ninth.

Whether or not they do anything beyond this, on the other hand….

Stephen Strasburg’s projections through 2026 | MLB.com

Those numbers might seem conservative, as projections often are, and Strasburg did throw far more innings (1,187 1/3) over the past seven seasons. But he did that at ages 24-30, not 31-37, and his health record should cause some concern.

There was, of course, the 2010 Tommy John surgery. But that led to just one of Strasburg’s 10 career stints on the injured list, including seven from 2015-18 before he remained on the field this past season. Going back to ‘15, Strasburg ranks only 34th in the Majors in innings, and his history of injuries is probably the biggest reason to for caution. As Russell Carleton—who now works in the Mets’ front office—wrote for Baseball Prospectus a few years ago, the best predictor of pitcher injury is past injury.

Rosenthal: The Reds are interested in Zack Wheeler; the Braves’ big bullpen bet; more notes

As first reported by Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times, free-agent third baseman Josh Donaldson is a legitimate consideration for the Dodgers.

Donaldson, who turns 34 on Dec. 8, would provide right-handed balance for a team heavy in left-handed hitters (Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Alex Verdugo, Gavin Lux). He also would bring an edge to a team that might benefit from such a jolt.

As the Braves discovered, Donaldson can be a bit of an acquired taste — as one club source put it, “he’s loud, in your face, an alpha who will test the room.” He went through an adjustment period in Atlanta, and Freddie Freeman talked with him at one point about better fitting into the clubhouse, the source said. But Donaldson eventually found his niche, and the Braves came to relish his daily intensity and competitiveness.

The team wants him back.

Yankees plan to have talks with Cole, Strasburg

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — After falling short of reaching the World Series for the 10th straight year, the New York Yankees intend to have conversations with top free agent pitchers Gerrit Cole and Stephen Strasburg.

“It’s a good time to be them,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Monday as the general managers meeting began. “Certainly we’ll have conversations from our perspective. And they’ll either lead to further ones or lesser ones.”

During a moonlit availability in a courtyard surrounded by palm trees, Cashman confirmed changes in the team’s staff, led by Matt Blake replacing Larry Rothschild as pitching coach. He said New York has had conversations with the agents for several of its players who became free agents, including outfielder Brett Gardner, shortstop Didi Gregorius and reliever Dellin Betances.

Starting pitching is the Yankees’ biggest need following their loss to Houston in a six-game AL Championship Series. Manager Aaron Boone’s rotation could use a premier arm to join a group that includes Luis Severino, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ.

Not to sign either of them- they wish to talk to them about a horse…..

Strasburg, Soto share postseason MVP from New York writers

NEW YORK (AP) — Washington pitcher Stephen Strasburg and Nationals outfielder Juan Soto have been selected as joint winners of the Babe Ruth award as postseason MVP in voting by the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

They will be honored at the chapter’s 97th annual dinner on Jan. 25 in Manhattan.

Mets rookie Pete Alonso was named recipient of the Joe DiMaggio Toast of the Town award and the Ben Epstein/Dan Castellano Good Guy award on Wednesday. The Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu was selected New York player of the year.

Mets broadcaster Ron Darling, who returned to the TV booth in June following treatment for thyroid cancer, will receive the Arthur and Milton Richman You Gotta Have Heart award. Yankees radio play-by-play broadcaster John Sterling, whose streak ended in July after 30 years and 5,060 consecutive regular season and postseason games, will get the Casey Stengel You Could Look It Up award.

For those of us curious as for just how many baseball awards are out there….

10 players receive qualifying offers

Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports reports that 10 players have received qualifying offers worth $17.8 million each: Josh Donaldson, Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Gerrit Cole, José Abreu, Jake Odorizzi, Madison Bumgarner, Zack Wheeler, Will Smith, and Marcell Ozuna.

The players have 10 days to accept or reject the qualifying offer. Accepting means they are back under contract with the offering team for the 2020 season; rejecting means they become a free agent with draft pick compensation attached to them.

We have talked in the past about how the QO system has hampered free agency. Teams that sign a player who rejected a QO must forfeit at least one draft pick. Teams losing a player who rejected their QO receive at least one draft pick as compensation, though it’s not a direct transfer from the signing team to the previous team. The compensation varies based on the team’s payroll and whether or not it receives revenue sharing.

So, who among these do you suppose will accept the qualifying offer?

MLB hot stove: Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg opts out of contract, becomes free agent, per report

As expected, Washington Nationals right-hander and reigning World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg has opted out of his contract, reports MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The Nationals have not yet confirmed the news. Strasburg is walking away from four years and $100 million. Saturday was the deadline to opt out.

Strasburg, 31, threw a National League leading 209 innings during the regular season, and finished with 3.32 ERA and 251 strikeouts. He then threw another 36 1/3 innings with a 1.98 ERA during Washington’s postseason run, including 8 1/3 innings of two-run ball with the season on the line in World Series Game 6.

The Nationals signed Strasburg to a seven-year extension worth $175 million in May 2016. The contract included heavy deferrals, as big Nationals contracts often do. Here is what Strasburg is leaving on the table:

2020: $25 million ($10 million deferred until 2027)
2021: $15 million
2022: $15 million
2023: $45 million ($30 million deferred until 2028-30)

Undefeated in Oct., Stras named WS MVP

Stephen Strasburg did not appear in Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night, but the Nationals right-hander already had made his mark on this Fall Classic.

Strasburg won the Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award presented by Chevrolet for those efforts after the Nats closed out the first championship in franchise history, beating the Astros, 6-2, at Minute Maid Park. He earned that honor by starting and winning Games 2 and 6, becoming the first pitcher to finish a postseason 5-0.

Congratulations to Strasburg and to the Nationals.

Capital hill: Astros, Nats put World Series eyes on pitching

Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer and a slew of aces get the World Series started in Houston, then the scene shifts to Capitol Hill.

But with Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg and all these electric arms, might as well call it capital hill.

Because in this Year of the Home Run, the focus of the 2019 Fall Classic is on the mound.

A throw-down for the ages, maybe. With a neat twist, too: The Astros and Washington Nationals share a spring training complex — they met in the exhibition opener, and Scherzer gave up a homer to the first batter of the game.

A consideration of the World Series to come, and an item that could end up being very important about it.

WaPo: Tom Boswell: Nationals Are Breaking The Rules & Might Steal Dodger Series

Boz missed Talk Like A Pirate Day, but better late than never, eh?

Like a pirate ship sweeping up on a stately frigate with treasure in its hold, the Nats have no intention of playing fair in this National League Division Series or acknowledging any big league code of conduct or unwritten rules of fair play. They want the gold, the diamonds and, blimey, the pearls, too.

Thanks to the bizarre, and probably unfair, dynamics of baseball’s five-game division series — with those five games spread generously over seven days — it is possible for a team with three fab starting pitchers who are game for the heist to come alongside and, “arrrrr,” board a mightier ship. Right now, the Dodgers, their series tied at a game apiece after the Nationals’ 4-2 victory in Friday night’s Game 2, are wondering where Washington got these scary skull-and-crossbones relievers. Avast, there Nationals, you’ve already used Stephen Strasburg (Tuesday) and Max Scherzer (Friday) in relief — as keys to two vital victories. Who’ll be swinging down from the rigging next?

Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in tow, the Nationals’ bullpen defies its reputation

LOS ANGELES — This bullpen, man. This damned bullpen in Washington D.C. is some collection of survivors and has-beens and can-bes and scar tissue and facial hair and thunderclap contact and breathtaking falls and Darwinian endurance and on two nights this week alone Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer, all stuck together with something that might be ear wax.

This bullpen is so gloriously self-aware, so defiantly willing, so exhausting, it really is a wonder, like a mutt with one eye sewn shut and both hips going and such bad breath, that’s been around so long you could hardly consider life without her.

And, yes, that’s right, three days after Strasburg followed Scherzer when the Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers to escape the wild-card round, Scherzer followed Strasburg when the Nationals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-2, on Friday night here to tie this National League Division Series at a game apiece, because at the end it can be ugly, it can be something slightly less than ugly, but it’s always something.

Two wins into a postseason that will require 12 of them, Strasburg and Scherzer have combined to get 45 of the 54 outs in those wins. That’s maybe not sustainable. It may also be their chance. And as long as the co-aces are game, and as long as the off days keep coming on schedule, and as long as the survivors and scar-tissued among them can be leveraged prudently, then keep ‘em coming. Game 3 is Sunday in D.C.

Does this mean that keeping your starters in the game as long as possible is the new market inefficiency?

Here are baseball’s top 20 free agents to be

If it feels like last year’s free agency just ended, that’s because it did. The “winter” technically stretched into early June, when Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel finally signed with the Braves and Cubs, respectively.

But it won’t be very long until we fire up free agency yet again, and, despite some rumors to the contrary, there’s a ton of talent on the table after the 2019 World Series wraps.

Here, we’ll take a look at some early free-agent power rankings (20 players for 2020). But like so much of life, it gets complicated. The market will be drastically affected by what happens with various opt-outs and option clauses. For this list, we’re going to leave off guys whose options are likely to be exercised or whose opt-outs aren’t. This currently applies to Kenley Jansen, David Price, Corey Kluber, Anthony Rizzo, Starling Marte, Nelson Cruz, José Quintana, Yu Darvish and Elvis Andrus, among others. But as always, stay tuned!

We will, however, include a few others who aren’t necessarily as likely to remain attached to their current contracts, and have noted those with an asterisk (*). All ages as of Opening Day 2020.

So, what thoughts do we have concerning this list?

Is Stephen Strasburg going to opt-out of his contract?

Stephen Strasburg is, quite quietly, having a wonderful season. He’s 16-5 with a 3.47 ERA and a 215/43 K/BB ratio in 179 innings across 28 starts. When it’s all said and done he’s going to finish with either the best or second-best season in his career, depending on how you like to measure such things, with his other best or second-best season having come in 2017.

Which means that Strasburg, for all of the hype of his youth, is an ace in his prime. Which means it’s a pretty spiffy thing for him to have an opt-out in his contract this offseason if he chooses to take it. Will he? Jon Morosi is reporting that “there’s increasing speculation in the industry” that he will.

Sure, he could- but with the free-agent market being what it is, is it a wise move to make?

LEADING OFF: Strasburg vs Braves, Lorenzen does it all

DOING IT ALL

Michael Lorenzen is making himself valuable wherever the Reds need him. In his latest performance, he did something no major leaguer has done since Babe Ruth in 1921.

On Wednesday, Lorenzen earned the win as a pitcher, hit a home run and played the field as Cincinnati beat the Phillies 8-5. Lorenzen pitched two innings, connected for a two-run drive and finished up in center field.

There’s something to be said concerning versatility….