Dusty Baker on Joe Ross vs the D-backs and the Nationals’ postseason rotation...

If it wasn’t already obvious, GM Mike Rizzo told reporters this weekend that Stephen Strasburg would not be pitching in the NLDS. Strasburg suffered a flexor mass strain upon returning to the rotation after three weeks on the DL dealing with right elbow soreness.

Though he’s thrown off flat ground and moved forward in his rehab, Strasburg hasn’t pitched since September 7th and there is a way to go before he’s game ready again, if he is at all this season. But he’s not likely to make it back for the Division Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“I think it would be kind of pushing it,” Rizzo acknowledged, as quoted by Washington Post writer Jorge Castillo.

“I think that’s fair to say. Again, I haven’t seen him after his throwing program today, but just the calendar, it’s unlikely that he’d contribute in that first series.”

Dusty Baker was asked earlier this week if Joe Ross could step up in Strasburg’s absence. Ross missed two-plus months recovering from shoulder inflammation.

He’s made two starts since returning, but threw just 63 pitches in his second start off the DL as he built up arm strength.

“It depends on Joe’s health,” Baker said. “At this time, Joe is closer to being Joe than Stephen is to being Stephen, so right now it depends on Joe’s health and how he feels. Stephen’s not on the mound yet. So we have to — we’re trying to amp up Joe’s pitches and keeping a close eye on him.

“He’s looked pretty good,” Baker said of the first two starts by Ross, “so we’re going to try to amp him up.

“I was talking to [Scherzer] about it and he goes, hey it’s important that you get over a certain point and then you get to a point where he can pitch six innings or six and a fraction which is really about all you need for a quality start anyway. I’ll take that.”

Ross threw 90 pitches in four innings on Thursday afternoon, holding the Arizona D-backs to a run on three hits in what ended up a 5-3 win.

“Ross was good. Very good,” Baker said. The next step, since he won’t get another start in the regular season?

“He’s going to throw in the pen,” Baker explained, “and so he’ll throw probably an extended pen and it depends on how he comes out today and we’ll see, who knows, we might need him out of the bullpen early in the series, you don’t know, so we’re just kind playing it by ear.”

The plan is for the Nationals’ coaches, scouts and executives to meet at some point today to talk over the roster decisions they have to make with the postseason set to start next Friday in either D.C. or LA.

“It’s not all my choice,” Baker said.

“This is a choice of myself, the staff and the general manager and that’s why we have meetings to try to come up and let everybody state what their thoughts are. I asked everybody to, on a piece of paper or whatever, to put down their 25 guys on how they see it and then we’ll come up with that because one guy might have a great idea and the next guy might have another idea.

“The pitching coach might have a different idea about the staff. The batting coach might have a different idea on who he thinks should be on the bench to face this guy and that guy and then we’ll come together with it and come up with a plan.”

“We’re going to meet Friday with our staff and go over some analytics and statistics and talk to the coaches and see what their feel is,” Rizzo said, in an interview on 106.7 the FAN in D.C. on Wednesday, “and what 25-man roster best fits the Dodgers at that time and who’s hot, who’s not, what players can affect you off the bench, what kind of bullpen do you want, that type of thing we’ll be doing that pregame Friday.”

They don’t have to announce the postseason roster until next week, however, so the makeup of the bench, bullpen and rotation will remain a mystery for now.

• We talked about the postseason rotation, the win over the D-Backs and more on Nats Nightly: