Butterflies or not, Lester pleased with delayed spring debut

Jon Lester has been doing this since 2006, taking the mound on a warm spring afternoon in either Florida or Arizona and beginning the process of preparing his arm and body for the upcoming season. Today represented the 58th spring training start of the left-hander's long career. Suffice it to say, he knows the routine by now.

And yet listen to how Lester described his emotions before he took the mound this afternoon in Port St. Lucie to make his delayed Nationals debut against the Mets.

"I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't nervous," the 37-year-old said in a Zoom session with reporters after allowing one run over two innings. "I had the butterflies, which is always good. I've told people before: If those butterflies go away, then it's time for me to go home. So it was nice to feel those again."

The butterflies were perhaps fluttering even more than usual Wednesday night and this morning as Lester anticipated his 2021 debut. It came two weeks later than originally planned because of a medical condition that required one of his four parathyroid glands to be removed March 5 in New York.

But when it did come today, and when Lester proceeded to throw 31 mostly effective pitches and prove himself healthy, there was no reason anymore to stress about the unusual events of the last two weeks. It was time to get to work and get ready for the season.

"I got back on (March 8) and I felt like it's just kind of business as usual," he said. "Back to the grind and back to the routine of what I'm trying to do. Baseball, for me, is an escape. I come to the field, I've got stuff I need to do. ... So I really haven't thought about it."

What Lester has been thinking about is how to return to the form he displayed through the vast majority of his career before hitting something of a wall last year with the Cubs, when his ERA skyrocketed to 5.16 (highest of his career) and he averaged only 5.1 innings per start (lowest of his career).

He hopes the surgery will make a tangible difference, the irregular parathyroid having sapped him of some of his strength and endurance. It'll be some time before he knows that for sure, but the evidence today was mildly encouraging.

Lester averaged 88 mph with his fastball and topped out at 90 mph. That's still a couple notches below where he wants it, but for a first start of the spring, it's not bad.

"I don't think this is a magic potion to where my velo's all of a sudden going to go back to where it was," he said. "I think at the end of the day what it's going to allow me to do is carry my strength through the season and be able to feel better each start and build on each start, where maybe I'm able to maintain that close to 91 average on my heater. You're going to have good days and bad days. If I can get that up close to that, I think that just makes my stuff play a little bit differently."

At this stage of his career, Lester knows he's not going to blow anybody away with his fastball. His wide-ranging repertoire of off-speed pitches are critical, and that's why he was also encouraged today by his changeup.

He threw it nine times, averaging 82.5 mph on it. And he got the Mets to swing at seven of them, fouling two off and whiffing at four.

"I know how important that pitch is going to be for me going forward throughout this year," he said. "It's definitely been a point of emphasis, as far as in my bullpens and just really playing catch with it. So it was nice to see the results, the couple swing-and-misses, out in front and got maybe a couple foul balls on it. That was definitely nice."

Manager Davey Martinez hoped to get at least two innings out of Lester today, perhaps letting him take the mound for the bottom of the third if his pitch count wasn't too high. He nearly got the opportunity, but a borderline 3-2 pitch to J.D. Davis with two outs in the first was called a ball by plate umpire Andy Fletcher, keeping the inning alive. James McCann then hit the first pitch he saw to right-center for an RBI double.

So even though Lester cruised through a quick bottom of the second, his pitch count of 31 (21 strikes) dictated his day was done at that point.

"I was very pleased," Martinez said. "He came out, he felt good. It was hot today. We wanted to get him through that second inning, as we did."

Though he's behind the rest of his rotation mates, Lester and Martinez both said they believe he still has enough time to be ready to open the season. Lester mentioned he thinks he has three more tune-ups, which could suggest he'll actually be slotted in as the Nationals' No. 5 starter and pitch the sixth game of the season (April 7 vs. the Braves).

He may not have built his arm up to be able to throw 100 pitches in his official Nats debut, but the club may not need him to throw that much this soon anyway.

"I think we'll be able to get there," Lester said. "Today was probably what, a little over 30 (pitches) or so? I think I have three more, so yeah, I think we'll be in a good position. That first (regular season start) may be hindered by some pitch count, but after that it should be relatively normal going forward from there."