Washington Nationals Would Benefit By Walking Away From Steven Strasburg

Steven Strasburg is back in the news, though he’s back in the news because he’s not in the news.

Maybe I should try that again.

With just 11 days remaining before Strasburg disappears into that same ether of broken dreams that enveloped pitcher Aaron Crow last year, the silence, except for that ever-present ticking clock, is unnerving.

We all know the particulars of the Strasburg syndrome. He’s perhaps the best college pitcher ever. He rewrote the NCAA record books. His adviser/agent, Scott Boras, reminds me a lot of John Shaft, that fictitious private eye from the movies.

Remember the song?

[insert funky, wa-wa music here]

“That Shaft is a bad mother f------“

“Shut your mouth!”

“But we’re talking about Shaft!”

“Then we can dig it!”

Insert “Boras” for “Shaft” and “Mike Rizzo” for the girl backup group, and you get the picture.

Boras is determined to blow up the major league amateur draft and has been looking for a test case to do it with. This could be it. Boras has privately intimated to a few journalists (if you believe them) that he’s after as much as $50 million for his client, five times more than the all-time bonus contract.

Who knows what he wants, and really, who cares? It doesn’t matter.

No matter how much back-and-forth happens between the two camps, and regardless of how much money Strasburg thinks he’s worth, there is a number already predetermined that represents what the Nationals believe makes financial sense.

If Boras wants more than that—well, Strasburg will follow Aaron Crow and play for an independent team for a couple of weeks until the end of the season.

The Nationals are fortunate that there is a lot of goodwill surrounding the team right now. The only moves made at the trade deadline were the right ones. And after beginning the “Riggleman Era” with six losses, they have gone 11-5.

The Beltway is full of smiles these days.

So what might happen if Boras demands such an outrageous contract that the Nationals, from a purely business perspective, must decline?

There not only is an out for the Nationals, but it might be the reasonable and prudent way to go.

And the fans just might buy into it.

First, the Nationals have to publicly explain Boras’ demands—down to the dollar—and then explain how paying the $50 million (or whatever the amount ends up being) would have hurt the team, how they would have had to trade Adam Dunn over the winter, or that there wouldn’t have been enough money left in the bank to pay next year’s top draft choice.

Scott Boras is a known quantity to Nationals’ fans. He’s been doing this kind of hocus pocus to major league teams since he screwed the Philadelphia Phillies 10 years ago when he tried to get $10 million for J.D. Drew.

Explain to the fans. They’ll accept the decision.

But the Nationals will have to do more than that, and they’ll have to explain why not signing Strasburg—while disappointing—will come with a silver lining.

Obviously, the team will get the number two pick in the draft in 2010 as compensation, so it’s not like they would lose the pick. Some fans won’t know that; tell them. That will give the Nationals either the top two picks in 2010 or the second and third.

Either way, it’s not the end of the world for the fans. But the Nationals need to go further.

They need to say something like, “We understand your disappointment, but we as a franchise aren’t going to just sit on that money that Scott Boras laughed at. We will enter the free agent market this winter as an active participant, and we will attempt to sign a pitcher for that same amount of money who already has a proven major league track record.”

For that same $50 million—give or take—the Nationals could have signed Derek Lowe last winter (11-7, 4.21 with the Braves), or several other pitchers of the same quality for the same money.

In 2010, Erik Bedard will be available. So will Kevin Millwood and Rich Harden. Brandon Webb (if healthy) would be a nice addition, as would Jarrod Washburn. And Jason Marquis has been downright nasty in Denver.

The bad news of not signing Strasburg could, in a very weird, convoluted doesn’t-make-sense sort of way, end up being a defining moment for the franchise.

A good defining moment.

Heading into 2010, the Nationals’ rotation will include John Lannan, Jordan Zimmermann, and perhaps Shairon Martis, Colin Balestar and/or Craig Stammen. Maybe Ross Detwiler will be ready and hopefully, Scott Olsen will be healthy.

But if the Nationals add a Harden or a Marquis, the rotation, in whatever form it would take, would be solid. The team would head into each and every game with the opportunity to win.

And then, come June, a team with a pretty good record would then have the top two picks in the amateur draft (or two of the top three) and suddenly, happily, things would be looking very, very good for the Washington Nationals.

It would almost be like the Nationals traded the rights for Strasburg for the number two pick in next year's draft and Harden, Marquis, or Bedard.

Not having Stephen Strasburg won't stop the Earth from rotating on its axis. Life will go on. Perhaps better than it otherwise would have.

And seriously, I think Scott Boras missed his true calling. Rather than negotiate baseball contracts, wouldn't you rather see him going toe-to-toe with Kim Jong-il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in nuclear arms reduction talks?

He'd come away with all of their nukes, Kim Jon-il's green jump suit and the beards right off the faces of Iran's ruling ayatollah's.

In exchange, he'd give up a used VHS copy of an old Charlie's Angels TV show.

Yeah, he's that good, darn it.