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The risk for the Gnats in deciding to shut him down and then failing to reach the WS, is that Stras might resent the missed opportunity. If they make a string of playoff runs and reach the WS while he's under team control, then maybe he gets over it. If not, it might drive him to another team. Of course, there is no guarantee anyway that they can retain him when he becomes a FA, and they decided it was in their best interest while he was under team control to do exactly what they did. The fact that they lost early in the playoffs says they were probably wrong in their judgement.