Nationals GM Mike Rizzo was just on ESPN 980 talking about Stephen Strasburg, here's a quick re-cap of what he had to say:
- "We're going to see him a year or so from today, and he's going to be bigger and better than ever."
- The club did baseline MRI's on his shoulder when they drafted ans signed him, and Rizzo said that in those tests his elbow was "pristine."
- The MRI results they got yesterday were "dramatically changed" from their baseline
- "The wear and tear portion, we don't think was a factor. We think it was a one-pitch episdoe."
- Rizzo said the team got the results back late last night, but with Bryce Harper in the building, they wanted to delay the announcement until this morning to let Bryce have the spotlight. Strasburg was consulted and agreed.
- Scott Boras happened to be in the building yesterday with Bryce Harper, and was involved with breaking the news to Strasburg
- When they told him, Strasburg was initially confused and angry, "How could this happen, my arm feels good?" But after he calmed down, he told rizzo that he would focus on his rehabilitation and wanted to come back better than ever.
- Rizzo was optimistic earlier this week when Strasburg came into the park, had no pain or swelling in his elbow, and passed the two tests that are given to players with elbow issues.
- " We protected him at every turn, and I've got no problem with the way we developed him. I've got a problem with the result."
- On Dibble, if you care about that sort of thing at a time like this: "I was upset at the comments, I think he was uninformed. You can say whatever you want about on field performance ... when you get into character, that's a slippery slope. Rob should have known better."
- "A year from now, we're all going to ebe excited because we just made a big deadline acquisition, and Stephen is about to come back."