WASHINGTON — As Stephen Strasburg talked Tuesday about concepts like growth and loyalty, failure and triumph and all the factors that led him to rejoin the Washington Nationals on a seven-year, $245 million contract, his wife Rachel sat just a few feet away, flanked by their daughters and clutching an oversized stuffed snowman.

Olaf had no comment on the proceedings, but like Strasburg, the “Frozen 2” character enjoyed a glorious rebirth in 2019, proof that the sequel can be just as great – and lucrative – as the original.

Strasburg has known just one franchise in his career, but for six weeks this autumn, he and the Nationals were uncoupled for the first time since the Lerner family reset the course of its franchise by selecting him first overall out of San Diego State in 2009.

The oft-injured phenom had grown in ways he could not have imagined over a decade in Washington, becoming a father, an All-Star, a very rich man and finally, in October, a World Series MVP. That glorious October run made opting out of his previous $175 million deal a no-brainer and forced both player and franchise into another crossroad.

FREE AGENT FRENZY: How Scott Boras got three mega-deals done

WINTER MEETINGS: Winners and losers from the week in San Diego

Once again, it turned out player and team only had eyes for each other.

“I’d like to think baseball is a lot like life – I would think that that’s what draws a lot of people to the game,” Strasburg ruminated at a Nationals Park press conference to mark the deal agreed upon before last weeks’ winter meetings. “It’s a game based on failure. I think this team has proved that if you believe in one another and keep fighting, you can achieve things that most people thought were impossible.

“To be a part of that environment, it’s something you want to hold onto and continue to be there.”

Since drafting Strasburg, the Nationals have been blessed with significant good fortune while also forging their own. No franchise has ever fallen into such groundbreaking consecutive No. 1 picks than Strasburg and Bryce Harper, chosen one year later. GM Mike Rizzo was also wise enough to pluck Anthony Rendon with the sixth overall pick one year after Harper.

They formed the core of a club that made the playoffs four times between 2012 and 2017, but with all three hitting free agency between 2016 and 2019, choices had to be made.

The Nationals struck preemptively on Strasburg, signing him to a $175 million extension in May 2016, before he could hit the market. They quietly let Harper go, opting to give $140 million to lefty Patrick Corbin last winter.

And this time, with Rendon hitting the market, Strasburg exercising an opt-out clause and both basking in epic October performances, principal owner Mark Lerner framed it as a binary choice: Strasburg or Rendon, but not both.

For agent Scott Boras, who also reps Rendon and top free agent prize Gerrit Cole, the Nationals showed their hand early.

“It was very clear that Stephen was a priority,” says Boras, who then steered Cole to a $324 million pact with the New York Yankees, and Rendon to his own $245 million deal, with the Los Angeles Angels.

“For Rachel and Stephen to know that, that was important. It allowed us a very efficient process and an early process because once that was known, the meeting of the minds could come together.”

A few years ago, it would be hard to fathom that Strasburg would be the long straw in the Nationals’ choice of he, Rendon and Harper. Between 2012 and 2018, he topped 30 starts just twice, as his famous shutdown following 2010 Tommy John surgery preceded myriad maladies that oft kept him from reaching his true potential.

After the Nationals committed $210 million over seven years to Max Scherzer, Strasburg found a spot out of the klieg lights. It would take him a few more years to elbow his way back in.

“Maxy coming in here with all the awards and the hardware, it was eye-opening for me,” Strasburg said Tuesday. “He could say this too – I think our personalities are very different. I’m very quiet. But he goes out there, and he’s fearless. I think there’s certain times I have a tendency to maybe shy away from certain things, certain hitters.

“But that aggressiveness I watched over those years, that was like, ‘Hey, I don’t really care what happens, but as long as I’m aggressive, that’s something that’s important to me.’”

Patriot Way: Cheating, deception, lies and winning NFL playoff picture: Big shakeup as four teams clinch College football bowl schedule 100 greatest NFL players of all time Like what you see? Download the USA TODAY mobile app

And this October, he was the hunter, the Brewers, Dodgers, Cardinals and Astros his prey. Strasburg’s devastating October – a 1.98 ERA, 47 strikeouts in 36 ⅓ innings and Game 2 and Game 6 conquests of the mighty Astros – came a few months after his 30th birthday, a more than symbolic milestone.

Baseball may increasingly be a young man’s game, but consider that Cole, Scherzer and Strasburg received a combined $779 million in guarantees before seasons in which thy turned 30 (Cole) and 31.

“You never stop getting better in this game,” said Scherzer, who attended Tuesday’s press conference and said he’ll enter 2020 with a clean bill of health. “You think, as a young player, if I can get to Year 3 or Year 4, I’ll kind of solidify myself and then by Year 5 or Year 6, you are what you are. That’s not the case.

“A lot of times, in Year 5, you’re just getting going. For (Strasburg), you talk about his age, service time and everything, this is the sweet spot of his career, the prime of his career, where he can continue to get better.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of Stras yet. I think it’s in front of him.”

The Nationals are hitching a significant portion of their future to that. Scherzer will be a free agent after 2021. They’ll next see Rendon in Anaheim, in the opposite dugout. They’ll have three and five more seasons, respectively, from shortstop Trea Turner and left fielder Juan Soto before free agency may tempt them.

Strasburg? He’s signed through 2026, which is why “National for life” was bandied about by all the principals Tuesday.

Even Strasburg realizes that’s a little heavy.

“For me, baseball is a very important part, but at the end of the day, it’s what type of person, what type of man I am. That’s the kind of legacy I want to leave,” he says.

So he left Nationals Park on Tuesday the way he did Minute Maid Park on a boozy October night – flanked by his children, albeit an even richer man. Team and player came to yet another mutual decision, nary a regret in the cold winter air.

“He’s been an underappreciated superstar for a long, long time,” says Rizzo. “He put his stamp on his postseason career the last couple years and his legacy is firm here. But when you’re giving out contracts of this length, and this type of money, you’re betting moreso on the person than the player.

“And I’ll bet on Stephen Strasburg’s character any day.”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.