Strasburg press conference today at Nationals Park

Stephen Strasburg last week decided to spend the rest of his career with the Nationals. Today he'll get a chance to explain why.

Strasburg, who signed a seven-year, $245 million extension eight days ago at the start of baseball's Winter Meetings in San Diego, is scheduled to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. today at Nationals Park to officially announce his side of the agreement.

It has never been Strasburg's way to embrace the spotlight. And truth be told, he'd probably rather not have this press conference at all. But it comes with the territory. When you sign a record contract - even if that record only stood for 24 hours - you sit in front of a roomful of reporters and cameras and speak glowingly about the city and the team you just signed with and then answer some questions.

If nothing else, it should be clear by now that Strasburg has become more comfortable with this whole process. Especially in D.C. Can you imagine him holding a press conference to announce his signing in New York or Los Angeles or anywhere else? Not really. Which probably explains in part why he chose to stay right here.

Strasburg has always been about comfort and familiarity. He had never lived on the East Coast before he was drafted by the Nationals and then signed his first contract in 2009. And many assumed he'd jump ship and return to the West Coast as soon as he had the opportunity.

Instead, Strasburg defied expectations. He not only re-upped with the Nationals for seven years and $175 million in 2016, he did it six months before he would've become a free agent. And though he opted out of the final four years of that deal last month, he did so hoping to re-up with the Nats again, just for more years and more money.

That's exactly what Strasburg got. And now he's set to be a National for life. If he finishes out his contract, he'll have spent 17 seasons pitching in Washington. That's a long time.

We'll get a chance today to hear how this all came about. Did Strasburg expect all along to opt out, or did his postseason performance play a role in it? Did he know all along he'd re-sign with the Nats, or was there ever a chance he would end up somewhere else? How much did he really try to convince Anthony Rendon to re-sign himself, and how disappointed is he that it didn't happen?

Strasburg will spend some time today answering all of those questions. He won't love being the center of attention, but he'll know it's all part of the job.

And, remarkably, he won't ever have to do it again, because he has now signed what almost certainly will be the final contract of his pitching career.