35,000 FEET ABOVE THE EAST COAST – Good morning from the friendly skies. Following a not-so-appreciated, getaway night game in Miami, your trusty reporter is currently flying home to Washington on less than full sleep. But don't worry, I won't be napping on this 2 1/2-hour flight north. I'll be working. Working for you, dear readers.

The Nationals' just-completed, 3-7 road trip to New York, Cincinnati and Miami was filled with all kinds of twists and turns, culminating in Stephen Strasburg's season debut Thursday night. The big guy didn't finish with a strong pitching line, allowing seven runs to the Marlins in only 4 2/3 innings, but there were encouraging signs sprinkled in there. And most importantly, he emerged from the start healthy and ready to pitch again in five days.

There's plenty more going on with this team beyond Strasburg, of course. Juan Soto, Keibert Ruiz and Luis García are all part of the daily lineup in the big leagues now. Lane Thomas has turned hot at the plate again. Josiah Gray has been pitching well. Cade Cavalli and Cole Henry are dominating at Triple-A Rochester.

If you've got questions about any of those players, or anything else for that matter, now's your chance. I'm stuck on a plane with nowhere to go for a couple of hours. So submit your questions in the comments section below, then check back throughout the morning for my responses (barring any airline WiFi issues, of course) ...

MIAMI – This was never going to be Strasmas II, and anyone who went into tonight’s game believing it might hasn’t been paying close enough attention. He wasn’t going to strike out 14. He wasn’t going to approach anything close to triple digits on the radar gun. He wasn’t going to wow the baseball world with pitching dominance.

No, when Stephen Strasburg took the mound tonight for the 247th time in a career that began with such a flourish 12 years and 1 day earlier, there was only one goal in everyone’s mind: Come out of this one healthy.

In that regard, the initial read of the right-hander’s first start of 2022 was a positive one for the Nationals, even if the final outcome was a 7-4 loss to complete a three-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins.

"It felt good, and I'm excited to learn from it and get back out there for my next one," he said, adding: "All in all, it's a place to start and try to build off it."

Sure, a better result would’ve been nice. Nobody wanted to see Strasburg give up seven runs in 4 2/3 innings or hand the ball over to Davey Martinez after serving up a towering homer instead of after recording a big out. But the 33-year-old’s final line in his long-awaited return from thoracic outlet surgery was never going to be the defining point of his start.

MIAMI – There’s going to be a right-hander wearing No. 37 on the mound for the Nationals tonight, as you may have heard. It’s the first time Stephen Strasburg will be pitching in that uniform since June 1, 2021, when he departed a start in Atlanta in the second inning with neck and shoulder discomfort, eventually to learn he needed thoracic outlet surgery.

All this time later, Strasburg is back. He has made it through the long rehab process, tossing six scoreless innings on 83 pitches last week in Rochester. Now we find out how he fares against a major league lineup.

Davey Martinez insists there are no restrictions on Strasburg tonight, but let’s be honest: The Nationals are going to be careful. They’ll monitor him inning-by-inning, but you’d think they’ll hold him to 90 pitches at most, maybe less, depending on how he looks and feels.

Strasburg will have very few familiar faces around him on the field, the Nats roster having been completely overhauled since the last time he pitched. That group of newcomers will be hoping to do everything they can to help him get through this start with minimal damage.

To make room for Strasburg on the active roster, the Nationals optioned Sam Clay to Triple-A Rochester.

MIAMI – Of all the factors that contributed to last summer’s trade deadline sell-off by the Nationals and initiation of an organizational rebuild, it’s not unfair to suggest that Stephen Strasburg’s latest injury ranked at the top of the list.

By the time the final week of July came around, the Nats knew they weren’t going to win anything in 2021. Once they learned Strasburg needed thoracic outlet surgery, they knew they probably weren’t going to win anything in 2022, either.

So when Strasburg makes his return to the mound tonight here in Miami, he’ll return to a situation that bears almost no resemblance to the one he found himself in the last time he pitched in a major league game.

The Nationals lineup June 1, 2021 in Atlanta included Trea Turner, Ryan Zimmerman, Kyle Schwarber, Yan Gomes, Josh Harrison and Starlin Castro. Daniel Hudson and Brad Hand pitched in relief. None will be here tonight when Strasburg faces the Marlins.

Nobody arguably has had more direct impact on the Nats’ fortunes over the last dozen years than Strasburg, whose availability to pitch has almost always been the difference between winning and losing. In five of the six seasons he made 24 or more starts, the team reached the postseason (all but 2013). In each of the six seasons he made fewer than 24 starts, the team failed to make it to October. And that number will grow to seven this year.

MIAMI – For the first time in more than a year, Stephen Strasburg is going to pitch for the Nationals.

The veteran right-hander and 2019 World Series MVP will make his long-awaited 2022 debut Thursday night against the Marlins, having finally completed his recovery and rehab from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery, manager Davey Martinez announced prior to tonight’s series opener.

“He’s excited. I know we’re excited to have him back,” Martinez said. “So he’ll be on the mound Thursday.”

Strasburg’s return had come into clearer focus over the last two weeks as he successfully completed three minor league rehab starts. When he tossed six scoreless innings for Triple-A Rochester on Friday, it seemed like a final step for the 33-year-old.

The only remaining hurdle was a bullpen session Monday here in Miami. Once he made it through that standard, between-starts throwing exercise with no issues, he was declared good to go.

The Nationals’ 2022 season began exactly two months ago, and it began with an uninspired loss to a Mets club that has proceeded to win eight of the 10 head-to-head matchups between the two division foes so far.

Along the way, there hasn’t been much reason to get excited about these Nationals. Even after winning three of four over the weekend against an equally struggling Reds team, they own a 21-35 record. At this pace, they would finish 61-101.

But for many, the losses haven’t even been the most frustrating part of the season to date. Many could stomach the losses if they were the product of a young roster learning and growing on the job together. But that’s not what this roster has looked like the last two months.

Though there are a handful of young players who could and should be part of the organization’s long-term plan, most of the guys in uniform have been veteran placeholders. Guys who are only going to be here until the real future of the franchise arrives, whether internally from the minor leagues or externally from other organizations or upcoming drafts and international signing periods.

Slowly but surely, though, that’s going to change. For the first time this season, we are beginning to see potential long-term pieces to the puzzle supplant short-term fillers. With the promise of more to come this summer.

NEW YORK – Though he’d never admit it publicly, Mike Rizzo knew what this season likely had in store for the Nationals. From the moment he dealt away eight veterans at last July’s trade deadline and made only modest acquisitions to account for it last winter, the longtime general manager signaled 2022 would be less about wins and losses and more about rebooting a franchise that sorely needed it.

Two months in, though, with his team owning one of the worst records in the majors, Rizzo admits he’s less than satisfied with what he’s watching. Not necessarily because of the record. But because of the way the Nats are playing.

“I think that the discouraging thing is that we’re not playing good defense, and we’re not running the bases well,” Rizzo said in the visiting dugout at Citi Field prior to Wednesday’s series finale against the Mets, an eventual 5-0 loss that featured several shaky defensive moments. “And those are fundamental mistakes that shouldn’t happen at the rate that they’re happening now. So that’s the biggest takeaway I’ve seen from the beginning of the season.”

Don’t confuse Rizzo’s frustration with the current manner of play from the Nationals as any concession his grand plan isn’t going as planned. He will immediately point to a revamped farm system that has performed better than the big league club, the development of prospects throughout that system and the promise of it all translating into more wins in D.C. sooner rather than later.

“I think setting expectations was important when we started this process with the ownership group and with the fan base,” he said. “I think a lot of people understand it, where we’re at, and I really believe that the reboot is in full-go, and I think that we’re in a better position than we were in 2009. A few short years later, we won the division, and I think we're in a better position now because our minor leagues are much better now than they were then.

NEW YORK – The Nationals couldn’t really afford to be picky when it came time to choose their starter for today’s series finale against the Mets. They had to take whomever was most available for this game.

They hoped that would be Josh Rogers or Paolo Espino, but both were needed out of the bullpen after Erick Fedde lasted just 1 1/3 innings during Monday night’s series opener. So that knocked each of them out of the equation.

In a perfect world, Stephen Strasburg would’ve been ready by now, but he’s not quite there yet. The news has been very encouraging on Strasburg, who tossed five hitless innings in a rehab start Sunday for Single-A Fredericksburg, but he needs at least one more tune-up Friday at Triple-A Rochester to build his innings and pitch counts up before coming off the injured list at last.

Cade Cavalli and Cole Henry each was dominant in his last start, Cavalli tossing seven scoreless innings for Rochester, Henry pitching four perfect innings for Double-A Harrisburg. But neither top prospect is deemed ready quite yet. And besides, neither was on the right schedule after starting Sunday.

So that left two remaining options from the Nationals’ farm system who were both on the right five-day scheduled: Jackson Tetreault and Evan Lee.

NEW YORK – Desperate for some fresh arms out of the bullpen after Monday night’s 13-6 trouncing at the hands of the Mets, the Nationals promoted Jordan Weems and Francisco Perez from Triple-A Rochester, moves that cost Andres Machado and Austin Voth their jobs.

Voth was designated for assignment, potentially ending the right-hander’s nine-year relationship with the organization. A fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft, he made his major league debut in 2018 and enjoyed his best run of success in 2019 but progressively struggled more and more since.

In 19 appearances this season, Voth compiled a gaudy 10.13 ERA and 2.143 WHIP. Over 92 total appearances since making his debut, he had a 5.70 ERA and 1.453 WHIP.

“I was more frustrated, because I sat down with him daily to try to figure it out,” manager Davey Martinez said. “We looked at all kinds of stuff, all kinds of numbers. We tried some things with him, and he was open to them. You saw some signs that maybe this was going to work, and unfortunately it didn’t. It’s tough. I really believe he was going to get through it, and it just didn’t happen.”

Voth, who was out of options, can either be claimed off waivers by another club or be traded. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll have the ability to decide whether to report to Rochester or sign a minor league contract with another organization.

NEW YORK – Watching Kyle Finnegan labor through the top of the eighth Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park, Davey Martinez felt like something didn’t look right with the Nats reliever.

The results certainly weren’t up to Finnegan’s standards: He retired only one of the five batters he faced, allowing three singles and a double, letting two Rockies runners score and trim a 6-3 lead down to 6-5. Ultimately, Martinez felt he had no choice but to summon Tanner Rainey to clean up the mess in the eighth and then also pitch the ninth for the first multi-inning save of his career.

What, though, was going on with Finnegan? After studying some video Sunday night and earlier today, the Nationals noticed his legs were spread wider than normal as he came set to throw each pitch. A seemingly minor discrepancy actually caused a significant drop in performance.

As Martinez and the club’s coaching and analytics staff realized, the spin rate on Finnegan’s fastball was down 10 percent Sunday from his season average. Suddenly, that upper-90s pitch was more hittable than it’s been all year.

“We talked a little bit. I noticed that his legs were a little bit wider on his setup,” Martinez said before tonight’s series opener against the Mets. “We talked to him about it. He was going to come in today, we were going to look at some numbers. His spin rate was down because of it, which I kind of figured. But we’re going to correct it.”

Stephen Strasburg was already in the home clubhouse at Nationals Park by the time Sunday’s 6-5 victory over the Rockies was completed, the traffic on northbound Interstate-95 apparently not nearly as awful as you’d typically expect it to be on a holiday weekend.

While the Nats were hanging on to beat Colorado and earn their first home series win of the season, Strasburg was making his second rehab start for Single-A Fredericksburg. And unlike his uneven first outing Tuesday night, this time he dominated his far-less-experienced opponents.

Strasburg tossed five no-hit innings. He retired the first 14 batters before finally surrendering a walk with two outs in the fifth. He struck out six. He did all this in only 58 pitches (38 strikes). Suffice it to say, it was about as best-case scenario as you could draw up under the circumstances.

And most importantly, it moves the 33-year-old one step closer to rejoining the Nationals and finally making his 2022 debut.

Manager Davey Martinez has said he’d like Strasburg to be able to complete six innings and/or throw 90 pitches before coming off the injured list. After going five innings Sunday, he should be cleared to go six in his next outing. The pitch count progression might lag a bit behind; it’s tough to imagine the organization would let him throw more than 75 or so pitches next time out. But as efficient as he was in this one, it’s entirely possible he could complete six frames around that total.

Saturday night’s decision to designate struggling right-hander Aaron Sanchez for assignment was prompted by the Nationals’ need to clear a 40-man roster spot in order to account for the fill-in starter they’ll need Wednesday in New York.

Manager Davey Martinez said the club will have someone not currently in the rotation start Wednesday’s series finale against the Mets, an outing that became necessary due to Friday night’s rainout and Saturday’s subsequent day-night doubleheader against the Rockies.

Martinez insisted the decision hasn’t been made yet and likely won’t until Tuesday, but acknowledged it played a role in Saturday night’s DFA decision with Sanchez.

“We felt like we’re going to need a spot here next week,” the manager said prior to today’s series finale against Colorado. “We felt like right now was a good time to start thinking about what we’re going to do for Wednesday. I can tell you right now, we have a lot of different options and things we’re thinking about. We won’t have a decision until probably Tuesday.”

The schedule does limit the team’s options to some extent. The organization’s top two pitching prospects, Cade Cavalli and Cole Henry, each had dominant starts Saturday night, with Cavalli tossing seven scoreless innings for Triple-A Rochester and Henry pitching four perfect innings for Double-A Harrisburg. Neither would be ready to come back and pitch Wednesday, though, removing them from the equation for now.

Stephen Strasburg will head back to Fredericksburg for his second rehab appearance, starting Sunday’s game for the Nationals’ low Single-A affiliate five days after taking the mound in a competitive game for the first time in nearly a year.

Strasburg, who allowed three runs while throwing 61 pitches in 2 2/3 innings Tuesday night for the FredNats, is slated to ramp up to 4-5 innings or 60-70 pitches, according to Nationals manager Davey Martinez. Because minor league teams now play six-game series every Tuesday-Sunday, he’ll be facing the same Salem Red Sox lineup he pitched against earlier this week.

The 33-year-old right-hander, recovering from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery, is entering the final stages of a long rehab program. Martinez has said he’d like for him to reach six innings and 90 pitches before coming off the injured list and making his much anticipated season debut, perhaps sometime in the next 2-3 weeks.

Further evidence that Strasburg is getting closer to pitching for the Nationals: After pitching Sunday afternoon, he’ll drive back to D.C. and join his teammates on their charter flight to New York. While the Nats face the Mets during a three-game series at Citi Field, he’ll go through his typical between-starts routine.

“Our plans are, if everything goes well, to take him with us to New York so he can throw another bullpen with us,” Martinez said. “And then we’ll determine what happens next.”

The latest MRI taken of Joe Ross’ elbow ligament showed “a little bit more of a sprain than I had in my previous MRIs,” the right-hander revealed today, making the second Tommy John surgery of his career a distinct possibility now.

Ross, who had to cut short his rehab assignment with Double-A Harrisburg after three innings Tuesday night, is scheduled for more tests Friday before a final decision is made. The 29-year-old and the Nationals are bracing for news he needs ligament replacement surgery again after trying to avoid that last-ditch option since last summer.

“I’m definitely frustrated,” he said. “Just a combination of missing the last five or so weeks last year, then doing all the rehab and going through all that from day one of the offseason, staying down in Florida and watching how this season is going so far, obviously I’d like to provide some assistance by coming back. … So it’s definitely frustrating to go through all that and not be able to assist in the way I would’ve liked, or at least how I was planning to.”

Ross had been diagnosed with a partial tear of the UCL last summer, but doctors determined he could attempt to rest and rehab and avoid surgery. He reported for spring training hoping to open the season on time, but after experiencing more elbow issues learned he had a bone spur that needed to be removed.

Ross started up his rehab process again, throwing alongside Stephen Strasburg for the last two months in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was excited to finally pitch in a competitive game for the first time this week. He said his arm felt strong during his first two innings in Harrisburg, when his fastball reached 95 mph, but he had trouble getting loose in the third inning and realized he couldn’t continue after that frame was over, even though he had barely thrown half of the total pitches (60) he was scheduled for in the start.

Though Stephen Strasburg emerged from his first minor league rehab start encouraged about the way his arm felt and is ready to continue progressing toward his return to the Nationals rotation, Joe Ross did not enjoy the same outcome after experiencing tightness in his surgically repaired elbow during his outing.

Both Strasburg and Ross were scheduled to throw four innings or 60 pitches in their first competitive game appearances of the season. Strasburg reached his pitch limit after only 2 2/3 innings. Ross never got there, getting pulled after his elbow tightened up during the third inning, with his pitch total reaching only 31.

Both pitchers were back at Nationals Park today, and Ross was headed to get an MRI on his elbow, with manager Davey Martinez admitting concern given the right-hander’s injury history. Ross had Tommy John surgery in 2017, then missed the second half of the 2021 season when a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament was discovered, then had arthroscopic surgery in March to remove a bone spur in the elbow.

“It’s a concern, because it’s his elbow again,” Martinez said. “But I don’t want to jump to any conclusions until we get the MRI back.”

Martinez said Ross showed no signs of trouble during his first two innings at Double-A Harrisburg, with his fastball topping out at 95 mph. But there was a drop in velocity during the third inning, and after he returned to the dugout he told the coaching staff his elbow was tight, at which point the decision was made not to send him back to the mound for another inning.

For the second straight day, the Nationals have someone new batting in a key spot at the top of their lineup.

Following Sunday’s decision to move Keibert Ruiz up to the No. 2 position in Milwaukee, manager Davey Martinez decided to bump Lane Thomas up to the leadoff role for tonight’s series opener against the Dodgers.

It’s only the second time this season Thomas has hit leadoff for the Nationals, but it’s hardly foreign territory for him. He started 39 games in the No. 1 position after his acquisition last summer from the Cardinals and produced an eye-opening .852 OPS from that spot.

Martinez had been thinking about giving Thomas another chance to bat leadoff against left-handers, and with Tyler Anderson starting tonight for Los Angeles, the manager felt this was the right moment to try it out.

“He’s swinging the bat well,” Martinez said of Thomas, who went 5-for-12 with two doubles, a triple and a homer over the weekend against the Brewers. “He hits lefties really well. For me, it’s just trying to get him up there against this lefty. … It’s something I thought about last night after looking at everything. I feel very comfortable with him leading off. He did it last year and did well. So with him and moving Keibert up to two, let’s see what happens.”

MILWAUKEE – Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross are ready at last to pitch in games. Minor league games, to be sure, but that’s nonetheless a significant development for both Nationals right-handers as they move closer to making their 2022 major league debuts.

Strasburg and Ross will begin minor league rehab assignments Tuesday night, manager Davey Martinez revealed before today’s series finale against the Brewers. Strasburg will start for Single-A Fredericksburg, with Ross starting for Double-A Harrisburg.

Each hurler is scheduled to throw four innings and roughly 60 pitches in their first true game appearances following lengthy rehab stints at the Nationals’ spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“Now they’re actually competing in a regular scenario,” Martinez said. “You can’t take them out after 15-16 pitches an inning. They have to go out there and compete, and they have to get outs. They’re going out there to help our affiliate teams win. I want them to understand that they’ve got to go out and compete and help those teams win.”

Strasburg has been out since thoracic outlet surgery last summer. Ross has been out since suffering a sprained elbow ligament last summer and then having a bone spur removed from that elbow this spring. Each has been on the 60-day injured list and rehabbing in Florida, slowly building up from bullpen sessions to live batting practice to simulated games, the most recent of which took place Thursday.

MILWAUKEE – Carter Kieboom hoped he’d be spending the next week building up his arm, resuming baseball activities and making plans to rejoin the Nationals’ active roster sometime in June, the elbow sprain that landed him on the 60-day injured list to begin the season finally behind him. Instead, the club’s longtime third baseman of the future will be preparing for Tommy John surgery that will sideline him until 2023.

Kieboom will have that major procedure Friday to repair his ulnar collateral ligament after the same pain he experienced in spring training cropped up again recently as he attempted to resume his throwing program in Florida. It’s a significant blow for the 24-year-old, who for the third straight season won’t have been able to secure the starting third base job the Nationals have long hoped he would seize when given the opportunity.

“We tried to do it conservatively, which he wanted to try first, and he felt really good,” manager Davey Martinez said of the rehab process Kieboom had endured over the last two months. “And then he started throwing and tried to really get it going, and he said the pain came back. At this point, we thought it was best, and he thought it was best, that he does have the surgery to fix it. This way, he comes back and there’s no other issues.”

The specter of Tommy John surgery has loomed since Kieboom first injured himself making a throw in spring training. An MRI at the time revealed both a flexor mass strain and a sprain of the UCL, though he and the Nats initially hoped he would be able to avoid surgery and return in a few months with rest and rehab.

All along, though, the club knew surgery might be needed if that rehab plan didn’t work. And sure enough, during a follow-up exam in Washington last week, the decision was made to schedule the ligament-replacement surgery.

Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross are ready to shift into a regular, five-day pitching routine that could prepare them to join the Nationals’ rotation sometime next month after completing their latest simulated games with no issues.

Strasburg, who is recovering from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery, and Ross, who is recovering from March’s surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow, each tossed two innings during a simulated game Friday in West Palm Beach, Fla. Strasburg threw 27 pitches, reaching 92 mph with his fastball, according to manager Davey Martinez. Ross threw 33 pitches, topping out at 95 mph.

“They’re feeling really good,” Martinez said. “We hope that continues.”

This session came four days after both right-handers pitched their first simulated games at the club’s spring training complex. They’ll now shift to a standard, five-game schedule between outings, further evidence they are transitioning from rehab mode to preparation mode.

Both Strasburg and Ross still need time to build their arms back up. They’re essentially now treating this final stage of rehab as if they were in spring training, with no significant restrictions due to their prior injuries.

Stephen Strasburg and Joe Ross each made it through the first simulated games of their rehab programs strong and are prepared to go through that drill again this weekend.

Strasburg and Ross pitched in those game situations Monday at the Nationals’ spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla. Davey Martinez didn’t have details on the number of innings or pitches each threw, but the manager had previously said they were scheduled for two innings a piece.

“What I got was: They both felt good,” Martinez said, relaying information he received from the organization’s medical staff. “So that’s good.”

This was a key step for both right-handers in their return from injury-plagued 2021 seasons. Strasburg, who had thoracic outlet surgery last July, and Ross, who was shut down last summer with a partially torn elbow ligament and then had surgery in March to remove a bone spur, had previously only thrown live batting practice.

The simulated game allowed both righties to pitch in a situation that more closely resembles a real game. Facing teammates who are also rehabbing in Florida, they would typically throw about 15 pitches per “inning,” then return to the dugout to rest for 10-15 minutes before taking the mound for their second “inning” of work.