This Washington Nationals Massive Extension Among Worst MLB Mistakes

The Washington Nationals giving their former first overall selection a massive extension has loomed as their worst mistake.

Jun 9, 2022; Miami, Florida, USA; Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg (37) catches a baseball during the first inning against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Washington Nationals gave a three-time All-Star a massive contract extension a few years back and that has developed into a nightmare scenario.

ESPN's David Schoenfield recently ranked each MLB team's worst mistake since 2020 and the Nationals giving Stephen Strasburg his hefty extension came in at the third spot in the league.

There were only two teams with worst decisions. The Athletics' fire sale before the 2022 season when they traded away a handful of All-Stars for little return and the Los Angeles Angels not trading away Shohei Ohtani at the 2023 deadline.

Strasburg was signed to a seven-year, $245 million deal before the 2020 season began. To summarize how bad it has been for those who may have forgotten, he is already retired from the sport.

At the time of the extension, he was in his 30s, but it was still not a huge head scratcher. He had a career ERA of 3.17 and had been dominating in a Nationals uniform for a decade.

The pandemic-shortened 2020 was a nightmare for both him and a lot of others, but became a huge sign of things to come.

After signing that deal, Strasburg put up a 6.89 ERA in just 31.1 innings of work in the three following seasons. He is now retired and his last MLB appearance came in 2022.

Now, he will have not touched the mound in four of the seven years he was signed for. He is going to be the highest paid player in Washington next year and potentially 2026. The deal will be over after that.

It hasn't been a banner few of years for the Nationals giving out massive contracts to pitchers as they are also just getting off of the Patrick Corbin deal that had been haunting them since 2018.

Some might consider losing Juan Soto a few years ago the worst mistake, but Washington did fine given the circumstances.

When Soto declined their $450 million contract offer and it became clear that he would not be signing an extension with them, they did the right thing in trading him away to at least the Nationals received a haul in return.

That haul has already turned into C.J. Abrams, James Wood and MacKenzie Gore starring on the MLB roster. Jarlin Susana and Robert Hassell still having made their way to the Majors, but are exciting players in their own right.

The Angels were recently in that similar situation with Shohei Ohtani, but kept him at the deadline. That was got them the designation of the overall worst mistake in baseball in Schoenfield's ranking.