New York Yankees Editorial: Are Injuries Pushing Stephen Strasburg Closer to the New York Yankees?

In case you missed it, the Washington Nationals placed Stephen Strasburg on the 15-day DL with a left oblique strain on Sunday. This is the second time this season that the right-hander was placed on the DL, and he’s only pitched a total of 61 innings in 2015.

On a larger scale, injuries have already taken a toll on Strasburg since the start of his MLB career, and as an impending free-agent in 2017, the Nationals might now be even more inclined to deal the injury-prone 26-year old instead of deciding to go through two-years of arbitration and/or deal with Scott Boras in a potential contract extension. Also, after signing Max Scherzer they have taken on a ton of additional payroll, and freeing themselves of Strasburg’s future earnings might potentially make sense.

Don’t get me wrong, if Strasburg were complete healthy, which is no-longer the case, any team would obviously need to piece together quite the package in order to make a trade. However, with each injury he suffers, his trade value might be decreasing. That said, the Nationals also have plenty of areas where they need help upgrading, and this is where things become interesting for the New York Yankees.

After coming off shoulder surgery, Jayson Werth is slashing just .208/.294/.287 through 119 at-bats, which is just horrendous when you factor in the Nationals paying him $18 MM a year. Obviously the Nationals can certainly use an outfield upgrade. They also could use an upgrade at second base. Beyond the injury plagued Anthony Rendon, the Nationals don’t have much depth at 2B in their farm system. They also can use bullpen depth, which the Yankees have a surplus of with Adam Warren back in the pen and Andrew Miller set to return in the near future.

Strasburg’s injuries are giving the Nationals less and less leverage to ask for top-tier prospects like Luis Severino, James Kaprielian or Aaron Judge in a return trade package. Instead, they might have to settle on a package of mid-level prospects to salvage some sort of return on Strasburg should they decide to deal him.

A package centered around guys like Rob Refsnyder, Jose Pirela, Mason Williams, Tyler Austin, Jake Cave and Jose Ramirez might be what it takes to land Strasburg, but the Yankees strongly have to consider the injury history behind Strasburg before making any type of commitment to trading for him.

Can a deal be worth it?

When healthy Strasburg is no doubt one of the best pitcher in baseball. His peripheral pitching stats (9.3 K/9, 2.7 BB/9) and ERA indicators (3.55 FIP, 3.38 xFIP, 3.44 SIERA) suggest that Strasburg had pitched somewhat better than his sky-high 5.16 ERA, which is exemplified by his .355 BABIP and a low 64.1% strand rate.

After returning from his first DL stint, Strasburg had looked much better, allowing just two runs and posting 18 strikeouts over 15 2/3 innings.

What do you think Yankee fans?

Is it worth it? Let us know in the comments below.

More from Yanks Go Yard

Home/Yankees News