Washington Nationals Former World Series MVP Has New Worst Contract on Team
When the Washington Nationals signed Patrick Corbin away from the Arizona Diamondbacks following the 2018 season, he immediately made that deal look like a strong investment.
He was a key part of the team winning the 2019 World Series, recording a 5.0 WAR in the regular season with a 14-7 record. Across 202 innings he had a stellar 3.25 ERA with 238 strikeouts, looking like a future cornerstone.
In the World Series against the Houston Astros, he worked out of the bullpen twice, including Game 7 for three shutout innings to help seal the deal.
Calling his signing a bad one given the contributions he made to a championship is certainly tough, but that first campaign was as good as it got for Corbin’s tenure with the franchise.
A six-year, $140 million pact quickly turned sour as he was tagged by opponents with regularity throughout next five seasons.
He led the National League in losses, hits allowed and earned runs allowed on three occasions.
In 2021, he gave up an MLB-high 37 homers.
His contributions were major in 2019, but the team was likely happy to see that money come off the books this winter.
With Corbin no longer in the mix, another hero from that World Series run is assuming the unwanted mantle as the worst contract on the team.
In the opinion of Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report, it is starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg.
The MVP against the Astros anchored the staff all postseason and constantly came up clutch.
Across 36.1 innings in October, he had a 1.98 ERA with 47 strikeouts.
For his efforts, the team rewarded him with a seven-year, $245 million contract, one of the largest deals in baseball history.
Unfortunately, that deal hasn’t aged well at all since that playoff performance was essentially Strasburg’s swan song as a Major League pitcher.
From that point on, he made only eight more appearances and threw 31.1 innings. The injuries he had to battle against early in his career eventually caught up to him after the heavy workload he endured in 2019.
Last April, his retirement became official because of “severe nerve damage,” but he hasn’t appeared on the mound since June 9, 2022.
Straburg remains the highest-paid player on the roster, set to earn $65.62 million in 2025 and 2026 combined.
It is certainly a sad ending to a career that had some incredible highs.
At least one positive for Washington fans is that the team didn’t double down on bad contracts.
The seven-year, $245 million deal that third baseman Anthony Rendon signed with the Los Angeles Angels is considered by many to be the worst in the sport.
