WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Welcome back, Joe Ross. Here are Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto to face in your first live inning since March 7, 2020. Take some wind, too. The kind that tugs at your jersey and may tip the cap off your head. Then see how many outs you can squeeze into 39 pitches.
“Honestly, it feels like it was two, you could say even three, years ago. It feels like a long time,” Ross said after making his spring training debut against the New York Mets on Monday. “Spring training games are one thing. The last real game was the [2019] World Series.”
The gap between starts was stretched by Ross opting out of last season with coronavirus concerns. In all, he faced seven batters and recorded five outs in a 9-5 win over the Mets. He struck out Nimmo, Conforto and Dominic Smith. He found trouble in the second inning, putting men on the corners with a walk and a single against the shift. He exited once Patrick Mazeika lifted a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Nationals could get Ross four more appearances before the regular season begins. That’s the plan with most of their starters — except maybe Jon Lester, who returned to camp Sunday after undergoing surgery to remove his thyroid last week. With Lester, Ross, Stephen Strasburg (season-ending hand surgery in August) and Max Scherzer (sprained left ankle in February), Washington has quite the puzzle to solve.
Getting the rotation ready for April 1 is a top priority. So far, Ross is on track.
“Generally, the first outing of spring always tends to be a little rushed on the mound,” said Ross, who threw three live batting practice sessions to teammates before this start. “At times, I felt that today. Just rushing through the mechanics a little bit, just getting excited, a little overamped, missing high with fastballs. That’s going to happen early on.”
Ross, 27, is surrounded by familiar context: He’s the front-runner in a fifth starter competition with Erick Fedde and Austin Voth. He is trying to sharpen his change-up. It’s another spring that holds plenty of opportunity.
The obvious difference, though, is that he is coming off the opt-out. In December, Manager Dave Martinez told reporters that he wanted Ross to round out the rotation. In February, when reminded of those comments, Martinez backtracked only because of Ross’s time away from the mound.
Before Monday, his previous appearance was 2⅓ exhibition innings against the Miami Marlins a year ago. His last start that counted was Game 5 of the World Series in October 2019.
“Similar to riding a bike,” Ross said of returning, a smile spread across his face. “I feel like the extended time off, there’s an initial soreness in the offseason. Every pitcher goes through it when you start playing catch again. I went through that in the initial week or two, but it wears off and you kind of get back into throwing shape; the mechanics and the timing come back to you. I feel good right now and pretty fresh.”
The longest “break” of his career was the 14 months between Tommy John surgery and returning in September 2018. He was more nervous then, he explained Monday, because his arm was responding to a serious injury. His short outing against the Mets, by contrast, was for tinkering and inching back.
Since his major league debut in 2015, Ross has leaned heavily on a sinker-slider combination. In just about every year since, he has discussed wanting to make his change-up a reliable third pitch. To lefties, he has flashed its potential while mixing in the occasional four-seam fastball. To righties, he has almost exclusively thrown the sinker, slider and four-seamer when ahead.
One task Monday was to test his change-up against righties. But of the seven hitters he faced, six were left-handed or a switch hitter. He struck out Smith, one of the lefties, with a change-up on the outer half. He threw it to J.D. Davis, the lone righty, in a 3-2 count and spiked it into the dirt for a walk. Ross fine-tuned the pitch last summer, fall and winter in catches with his brother, Tyson, who pitches for the Texas Rangers. But nothing could really prepare him to use it again in games.
“There’s no real way to compare or, I don’t know, kind of re-create that scenario in the offseason,” Ross said. “Even if you were to do it live or face some hitters, having it be the game scenario with your guys versus another team, especially guys that you play against a lot and you know and have previous history with, at-bats and things like that ... that all immediately comes back to you as the game’s going on.”
So the early results were fine and limited. Ross’s next steps are to smooth out his delivery and shave down his time to the plate. He prefers to be around 1.3 seconds to limit base stealers. Or, should hitters reach and run against him, he wants his catcher to have a chance.
But the main goal is to be pitching in Washington instead of Rochester or Harrisburg. One of Ross, Fedde or Voth will slot behind Scherzer, Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Lester, should they all be ready for the season. And depending on who does, at least one of Ross, Fedde or Voth is expected to join the bullpen as a long man.
Ross had a rotation spot in reach when the sport shut down last March. Now, perhaps more than ever, he has to grab it and stick.
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