Shoulder healthy again, Cavalli itching to get to spring training

From the moment the Nationals declared his season over due to lingering soreness in his shoulder, Cade Cavalli has been itching to get back on a mound and start pitching again.

He hasn’t quite reached that point yet in his offseason throwing program, but that’s not for lack of desire on his part.

“Cade said he’s ready to fire the ball, and I told him: ‘Well, don’t do that yet,’ ” manager Davey Martinez said last week at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. “We’ve got plenty of time. But he’s fired up.”

Cavalli knows no other way. The energetic 24-year-old is eternally optimistic, which is why he has never viewed his September shoulder issues as anything but an important lesson in understanding when not to try to pitch through something that doesn’t feel 100 percent right.

Cavalli didn’t feel 100 percent right during his Aug. 26 major league debut. On a hot, muggy summer night at Nationals Park, he had all kinds of trouble gripping the ball and wound up allowing seven runs in 4 1/3 innings to a less-than-imposing Reds lineup, walking two batters while hitting three more.

The next day, he informed the club’s training staff his shoulder was sore, so he was immediately shut down and placed on the 15-day injured list. At the time, the Nationals hoped he might return before season’s end, but when he reported a return of the discomfort a couple weeks later as he attempted to start throwing again, those hopes were dashed.

Nearly three months later, Cavalli is confident his arm is healthy. He recently began throwing again and will now start the process of ramping up for spring training the way any other healthy pitcher would during the winter.

“It’s feeling really good,” the right-hander said in an interview on this week’s episode of the “Nationals Hot Stove Show” on MASN. “I started throwing two weeks ago. I’m following our plan, and all is good there. I’ve been really happy about it.”

This was an important year in the 2020 first-round pick’s development. Though there was talk of a quick promotion to the majors coming out of spring training, the Nats left him at Triple-A Rochester for five months, wanting to make sure he enjoyed consistent success before getting the call.

It took a little while for that to happen, but over his final 13 starts, Cavalli posted a 2.10 ERA and 1.019 WHIP while striking out three times as many batters as he walked.

That convinced club officials he was finally ready, so they summoned him to D.C. to face the Reds. The results that steamy night weren’t what Cavalli hoped they’d be, but he still emerged confident he was ready for the assignment.

“It was an awesome experience,” he said. “I was frustrated that I didn’t put the team in the best chance to win that game. And obviously, I got hurt during that game. That’s also frustrating. But the experience was great. I felt very comfortable, like I belonged there, which I was very pleased with. The comfort level in that stadium in front of the fans was awesome. I enjoyed the day. I enjoyed competing out there. And I’m really looking forward to getting back out there on that mound again.”

The Nationals have every intention of putting him on that mound many times in 2023. Martinez said he’s already penciled Cavalli into his Opening Day rotation, where he’s expected to join fellow young starters MacKenzie Gore and Josiah Gray, along with returning veteran Patrick Corbin and recently signed right-hander Trevor Williams.

There will be considerable attention and pressure on Cavalli, given his pedigree, to prove he’s not only a viable big league pitcher, but a frontline starter who can lead this rotation for years to come. He’s never shied away from the spotlight, but he’s also learned how not to get caught up in it.

“I try not to put too much expectation on it,” he said. “I think if I can just focus in on the work and the steps that are needed to be done in order to be successful in this game … the outside stuff, it can almost become white noise for you. The expectations are not there in me to the point where I get stressed about them. I’m just trying to focus on what I can control, and just let the results be the results.”

Step No. 1 is ensuring he’s moved past his end-of-season shoulder troubles. He insists he already has.

“I’m just going to trust it,” Cavalli said. “I’m not going to worry about it too much. I’m going to go about my work the way I do. We’ve been on a really good shoulder program. I’ve been trusting that and I’ve been hammering that to get stronger. I think that’s the big step: Getting stronger and making my sequence a little bit better in my lower half and getting the energy transferred to the right areas. It’s been big doing that, and I’m really excited about where it’s headed.”