Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg set to make third rehab start today at Triple-A...

Stephen Strasburg - Rehab Tour Continues:

While his comments on Juan Soto and the way he dismissed the rumors the club is looking to trade their 23-year-old wunderkind made headlines, Nationals’ GM Mike Rizzo did talk to 106.7 the FAN in D.C.’s Sports Junkies about a number of topics in Wednesday’s weekly visit, including the latest developments for 33-year-old, 2009 No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg.

Strasburg is scheduled to make his third rehab start tonight, at Triple-A Rochester (7:05 PM ET), after a five-inning, no-hit, six-strikeout appearance in his second consecutive outing at Single-A Fredericksburg.

“He looks good. He’s healthy,” Rizzo told the Junkies. “The performance and the statistics are meaningless to me. It doesn’t matter no hits, or two hits, or two runs, or whatever. He’s healthy, he let the ball go, his velocity was solid, his secondary stuff was firm, and had action to it, and he felt good afterwards. We’re going to extend him. Friday he’s pitching in Triple-A in Rochester, and we’ll extend him, and again, he’ll pitch Friday and we’ll see where he’s at after that and make an assessment of what’s the next step. Either another rehab start, or does he join the team, that will all be determined by how he feels after the start on Friday.”

Barring any setbacks, Strasburg is getting close to making just his 8th big league start since 2019’s World Series MVP run.

Strasburg has had surgery for both carpal tunnel neuritis (2020) and then for thoracic outlet syndrome (2021), and he took the time he needed this spring, refusing to rush the long, and frustrating process of working his way back to the majors.

“I think we’re getting close,” Rizzo said.

“Without any setbacks, I think we’re getting closer, definitely, now it’s a point of extending his pitches out to six innings or 100 or so pitches, and when he gets to that, and he feels good about that, then we’ll see, if there are no setbacks.”

Can’t knock on enough rhetorical wood. We get it, Rizzo.