As first reported by Yahoo! Sports' own Tim Brown, the
Nationals and the 21-year-old
San Diego State righty came to terms on a four-year, $15.1 million deal just moments before — 11:58:43 to be exact — Tuesday's 12 a.m. ET deadline for clubs to sign their '09 picks.
The agreement ranks as the richest deal in
MLB draft history, surpassing the $10.8 million contract the
Rangers gave
Mark Teixeira in 2001. However, it still falls short of the $20-22 million that
Strasburg and agent
Scott Boras were said to be demanding earlier on Monday and way short of the silly $50 million number that was floated before the draft.
We'll have much more on this later today, but my initial reaction is that both sides can walk away as winners. The
Nationals are the obvious victors in the financial arena, but in a
baseball sense, it was in the best interest of both camps to get
Strasburg on the fast track to the bigs instead of defaulting on the negotiations and parting ways forever.