Strasburg on his new look and how he will try to stay healthy for the entire season

Right-hander Stephen Strasburg enters his eighth season with the Nationals on Monday. He gets the opening day start against the Marlins.

The 28-year-old is making his 157th start with the Nationals, and has tossed 924 1/3 innings since 2010, striking out 1,084 batters.

He looks a little bit different this year. The beard he has grown makes him look older. Strasburg believes it has had another effect in the clubhouse.

"At least the guys who have had beards here, they have kind of accepted me in that brotherhood a little bit, so that's good," Strasburg smiled. "I thought it would be like, 'I don't have to shave any more or do anything to it.' But I found that I still have to maintain it at least for my wife. Hey, if I'm on the road, I won't trim it up or anything."

Strasburg pitched exclusively out of the stretch in spring training. He feels he may not need to pitch out of the windup to still get the same velocity and movement on his pitches he needs to be effective.

"My goal (is) hopefully that it's going to help me repeat my mechanics a little bit better," Strasburg said. "Hopefully keep me out there on the field, going deep into a game. That's the No. 1 goal. I know pitching out of the windup is not really that big a difference to what I'm doing now. Especially when you look at other guys who have just kind of turned and kind of gone through the same windup. I really don't think that little movement is doing anything extra for me except maybe throwing off my timing. As of right now, it feels good and I'm just going to keep working at it."

Nationals manager Dusty Baker is not concerned that pitching out of the stretch will limit Strasburg's overall effectiveness.

"Stras is Stras," Baker said. "Let's not talk about him like he's some rookie his first time out there. He's closing in on being a veteran at a very young age. We just have to let him pitch."

Strasburg is aware he hasn't been able to get to 30 starts in a season since 2014. He's thrown more than 200 innings in a season only once. Strasburg believes not working his arm as much between starts might help him get through the whole season without a setback.

"Biggest thing is listening to my arm," Strasburg said. "Stay healthy as long as I can. Hopefully, it's all year. I think what I have noticed is that I have been able to just get what I needed out of a bullpen and not really tinkering with things too much. I'm not throwing as many pitches off the mound in between."

One other strategy Strasburg has employed to relieve stress on his arm is not using his slider as much. But he still believes it is a very valuable pitch in his arsenal.

"I think it showed last year, especially in the first half, that it was a pitch that worked pretty well for me and it set up all my other pitches," Strasburg said. "I think I've established it, I just need to not be so heavy on it. Use my other stuff, too. That's just about going out there and trying to command all four pitches, and even if you aren't commanding them, still throwing them because they still have a purpose, even if you aren't getting the movement that you want."

Another difference for him Monday is he will throw to new catcher Matt Wieters for the first time in a regular season game.

"We already get along very well," Strasburg said. "He's got a 4-year-old and I've got a 3-year-old. I think they've got crushes on each other. I got to watch out for him. He's a great guy. He's a professional. He really cares about getting to know the pitchers and working with us. That's huge because I think he kind of gets it. Just having a four-time All-Star back there and getting some different information that he's picked up along the way is great for everybody."

All these steps are for the bottom line: to make sure Strasburg is healthy come the end of the season and a potential playoff berth. Baker knows the difference it made against the Dodgers in the National League Division Series when they could trot out Clayton Kershaw multiple times and the Nats did not have Strasburg available.

"The secret is to keep them all healthy because life could've been much different had we had Stras and had we had (catcher Wilson) Ramos," said Baker. "But you see, when you're missing a couple of key ingredients, especially come playoff time, it's big."

Programming note: Be sure to catch the opening "Nats Insider" today from noon-1 p.m. on 106.7 The Fan with special guests Adam Eaton, Nationals vice president of ballpark operations Jonathan Stahl, MLB.com's Jamal Collier and more.