After throwing a 90 mph changeup and grimacing on the mound in pain during the fifth inning of Saturday’s game against the Phillies, the Nationals have little choice but to shut down Stephen Strasburg’s 2010 season.
This is the second time this month that Strasburg has dealt with an injury. A couple of weeks ago he had a shoulder problem that caused him to miss some time and yesterday’s injury has been diagnosed as a strain of the flexor tendon in his right forearm. Considering this is a club that’s 17 games below .500 and 19 games back in the NL Central, this should be a no-brainer decision for the Nationals. Regardless of what a MRI reveals – his season should be over. Why risk further injury here?
Something that will be lost in the injury news is how well Strasburg pitched yesterday. He threw 56 pitches before departing the game, throwing 38 for strikes and allowing just one run on two hits to go along with his six strikeouts. He showed the type of mastery of hitters last night as he did when he was first called up in June.
But again, regardless of how good he looked or how many tickets the Nationals want to sell from here on out, they have to look at the bigger picture. Just because he has suffered a couple of injuries this year doesn’t mean that he’ll have issues the rest of his career and in fact, the early indication is that he should be fine. But why take any chances right now? Both the Nationals and Strasburg have more to look forward to than the rest of this season, which essentially means nothing.
Shut his season down, have him take a MRI and then proceed with how to handle the results. Getting the young phenom back onto the mound should be the least of the Nationals’ concerns right now.
