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Washington Nationals make qualifying offers to free agents Stephen Strasburg & Anthony Rendon

Anthony Rendon and Stephen Strasburg both received a 1-year/$17.8M qualifying offers from the Washington Nationals on Monday.

By Patrick Reddington
2019 NLCS Game 4 - St. Louis Cardinals v. Washington Nationals Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Stephen Strasburg and Anthony Rendon are two of ten free agents who received qualifying offers from their now-former (even if only momentarily “former”) teams on Monday.

Strasburg, 31, is hitting free agency coming off solid, healthy regular season, and dominant postseason, in which he was named World Series MVP, posting a 1.98 ERA, four walks, 47 Ks, and a .221/.239/.368 line against in six games, five starts, and 36 1⁄3 IP in October, after a big (18-6) season in the nation’s capital in which he put up a 3.32 ERA, 3.25 FIP, 56 walks, 251 Ks, and a .210/.271/.349 line against in 33 starts and 209 IP, finishing the year at 5.7 fWAR.

Rendon, 29, set career marks, “in nearly every offensive category,” as the Nationals put it in their Season in Review, finishing his seventh major league season with a 319/.412/.598 line 44 doubles, 34 home runs, 117 runs scored, 126 RBIs, and 154 wRC+ in 146 games and 646 plate appearances, over which he was worth 7.0 fWAR.

The qualifying offer this year is for a 1-year/$17.8M deal, which both players will decline at some point in the next 10 days, but making one guarantees compensation for the teams that lose players to free agency, with the Nationals set to get draft picks after Competitive Balance Round B in the 2020 Draft if the players sign elsewhere in free agency.

MLB Network analyst Jon Heyman reported on Monday that the Nationals are already trying to get Strasburg re-signed after he opted out of the final four years and $100M of his deal with the Nationals, (much of it deferred) to test the market, after signing an extension to avoid free agency in 2016, when he got a 7-year/$175M deal from the team that made him the No. 1 overall pick in 2009.

Rendon avoided arbitration with the Nats last winter, when he agreed to a 1-year/$18.8M deal for the 2019 campaign, but rumored discussions on a potential long-term extension have not resulted in a new deal that would keep the 2011 1st Round pick in Washington in 2020 and beyond...

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