Entering "uncharted waters," Strasburg seeks healthy 2020

Stephen Strasburg had spent the better part of a decade learning how best to prepare for - and then thrive in - a 162-game baseball season. And after years of fine-tuning and injuries and hopeful stretches following by disappointing conclusions, he figured it out at last.

Strasburg's 2019 season was the perfect culmination of a career spent tinkering. He led the league in innings pitched. He led the league in wins. And he put together one of the great postseason runs of all-time, earning World Series MVP honors, not to mention a huge contract extension from the Nationals.

He entered 2020 with a concrete plan in place and every reason to believe he had solved the longstanding dilemma of how to keep himself on the mound and pitching in peak form an entire season. And then the plan had to be blown to smithereens.

Like everyone else in the sport, Strasburg suddenly found himself stuck at home for more than three months, trying to figure out how to stay in shape and be ready whenever baseball was ready to return.

How'd he do it? By working out in the gym he's got in the basement of his Northern Virginia home. And by playing catch in the backyard not with a teammate but his wife, Rachel, then throwing pitches not to a batter but a net.

"You're kind of in uncharted waters here right now," the right-hander said.

Well, yeah. Strasburg, just like every other major league pitcher, is trying to figure out how to get himself in midseason form in the next two weeks, then how to make sure he stays healthy and effective through the completion of this 60-game sprint to October.

He did everything he could during the hiatus, but he has no way of knowing for sure whether it was enough.

"It's tough to say," he said. "I did my best to stay ready. It's just about getting built up. My arm's feeling good. It's feeling strong. I think it's just a matter of getting back the little bit of extra extension in your delivery that it's kind of hard to simulate when I was pretty much throwing into a net."

Strasburg should get a sense of his state of readiness today when he's expected to face live hitters at Nationals Park. This should be the first of three tune-ups he gets before the season begins, the last of which could come in a July 20 exhibition game against the Orioles at Camden Yards (on his 32nd birthday, no less).

If all goes according to plan, Strasburg is lined up to start the Nationals' second game of the season: July 25 vs. the Yankees.

"At this point, it's kind of like a mad dash," he said. "Try to get as many reps as you can and get up to as close to game speed as possible. But we know the clock's ticking."

Strasburg said the thought of opting out of the season never seriously crossed his mind, even after watching teammates Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross elect not to participate this year for health and safety concerns.

The veteran right-hander is just entering the first season of his new $245 million contract with the Nationals. And with his family in good hands, he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to start proving he's worth the massive deal.

"I think I'm pretty fortunate that I do have family members with preexisting conditions, but they're all back across the country," said Strasburg, whose parents live in San Diego. "I keep track on them to make sure they have what they need, but they're very excited to watch baseball on TV. And I'm excited to get back out there playing for them."

After entering spring training with concerns about the toll the long 2019 championship run took on his arm, Strasburg now resides in summer training having had all kinds of time off to recover from the heavy workload. The goal: Making sure he's able to keep pitching every fifth day during this most unusual season.

"In any situation, as you get older, you have to do a better job of listening to your body and knowing where's the fine line between too many reps and not enough," he said. "That doesn't change in this situation. I just think it's a crazy time right now. If we go out there and provide some relief for the fans, something fun for them to watch on TV, that's the big purpose here. The biggest thing for every player here is just to go out and compete and give it everything they have."