Stephen Strasburg’s unexpected contract extension with the Washington Nationals features something that is becoming a trademark in the club’s long-term offers: deferred money, and lots of it.
The breakdown: Strasburg will receive $15 million annually from 2017-23, and then $10 million per year from 2024-30. This helps the Nationals in two ways: keeping payroll lower in the near term, and also lowering the actual value of the entire package. The Nationals, the person said, figure the deal is actually akin to about $162 million if it were paid out only over the seven-year life of the contract.
The deal is similar in structure to the seven-year, $210-million contract the Nationals are paying to right-hander Max Scherzer. Strasburg and Scherzer share the same agent, Scott Boras, and Boras has shown a willingness to work out contracts that continue paying his clients after they expire.
But such deferrals proved problematic as the Nationals pursued free agents over the winter. Outfielders Jason Heyward and Yoenis Cespedes, who signed with the Cubs and Mets respectively, appeared to take less total money than Washington offered, but the actual value of those offers were deflated because so much of the money was deferred.