Most starters don’t last ten years in the league. Think of all the Matt Harvey’s.
Oh, of course. There's a definite feedback loop among performance, longevity, and injuries. But I think of the guys who have managed to be starters for that long, he'd be on the lower end of the durability scale. I mean, consider that he had the same number of starts per year over that period as Jordan Zimmermann, and that includes four years of Zimmerman's "arm fell off, I suck now" tour in Detroit.
I don't know how to score that, really: 10 years is a long time, and Strasburg has been very effective when he's pitched. But now he's owed a boatload of money over a long time and seems exceedingly unlikely to pitch anywhere near the value of that contract.
Without the extension, he had what would be considered quite a strong career. With it...well, it's hard to know what the legacy will be yet. What's for darn sure is that his 2019 and the team's 2019 make the picture a whole heck of a lot better.
From 2012 through 2019, Strasburg was #8 in major league baseball in pitching fWAR.
He never lived up to draft expectations, but not everyone can be Max Scherzer. Another Stephen Straburg is a very high expectation. If Cavalli approaches Straburg, then we have a stud.
The TJ is the thing people don't seem to cut him slack for on the not-being-Walter Johnson angle. Before that surgery, he looked like an all-time great. He never made it all the way back, which is something to marvel at considering the success he's had post-surgery (health permitting).
