Stephen Strasburg will make his first Major League start in more than a year on Thursday at Miami, Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez confirmed on Tuesday.
Strasburg, the 2019 World Series MVP, has pitched just 26.2 big-league innings since signing a seven-year, $245 million contract in the post-2019 offseason.
His 2020 season was cut short by carpal tunnel surgery, and then his 2021 was ended prematurely when he required surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome.
Over the two seasons, the 32-year-old made just seven MLB starts, with a 1-3 record and 5.74 ERA.
Strasburg was 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA for Washington in 2019, and 5-0 with a 1.98 ERA in the 2019 postseason.
Martinez and Nats GM had indicated before the 2022 season that they were aiming to get Strasburg back for 20-25 starts this season.
The Thursday season debut would put him in line to get closer to the 20 starts mark.
“I’m not going to put any limitation on it. We’ll see how far we can take him,” Martinez said. “We’ll keep a close eye on him. But this is one of the reasons why we wanted him to go through what he did to make sure that he’s fully ready.”
Strasburg put in three rehab starts over the past two weeks, two at Low-A Fredericksburg and one at Triple-A Rochester, and seemed to get better each time out.
He threw five no-hit innings in his second start for the FredNats, then put in six one-hit innings on Friday for Rochester.
I was on hand for his May 22 start in Fredericksburg, and his fastball was regularly touching 94 mph in that one.
His numbers over the three rehab starts: 1-1, 1.98 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 13 K/6BB in 13.2 IP.
Strasburg’s return has to be a boost for a Nats staff that ranks dead last in MLB in starters’ ERA (5.88) and WHIP (1.59).
Story by Chris Graham
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