Here’s what Braves’ Spencer Strider took from dominant return to mound

But, man, was Monday nice for him.

For the first time since April 5 of last year, when he made his final start before needing internal brace surgery, Strider took the mound. Yes, it was only a Grapefruit League game. But here he was, jogging out to the mound to warm up for the first inning. He pitched into the third inning and couldn’t have looked better.

So, on the theme of delayed gratification, days like Monday are a little sweet because of all the work that came before them.

“It’s like a little reward sprinkled on the pathway, kind of. That’s how I view it,” Strider said after the outing. “It’s also just a good kind of test for the work you’ve been doing. I think you get to see some things at game speed that you just can’t really analyze super well in bullpens and stuff like that. To go through the full routine, hear the national anthem, do all that stuff, shake hands with the guys before, you get a more honest evaluation of everything. Obviously I have to go break the stuff down and everything. But already feeling a lot of good stuff that kind of validates the work we’ve been doing, and (I’ll) keep moving forward.”

Strider threw 2⅔ perfect innings. He struck out six of the batters he faced. He topped out at 98 mph, and he should add more velocity in his coming starts. Of the 27 pitches he threw, 23 were strikes.

He was dominant.

This was Strider as good as we’ve seen him.

No, Boston didn’t have its “A” lineup. But Strider outclassed the competition. He mystified hitters. He threw his four-seam fastball, slider, curveball and change-up — and all looked great. The only two balls in play: A first-pitch ground out to begin the game and a third-inning pop-up into foul ground.

He looked like someone who, in an ideal world, could be on the opening-day roster and help the team. He was that good. He’ll need likely four or five more starts before that happens, but Monday was an encouraging start.

“You want to see your stuff at game speed,” Strider said. “A lot of things can go well or look a certain way or be consistent in bullpens and stuff, and then you get in the game and all of the sudden there’s a lot of new elements. To see command come with me — I felt like my command has been good. To see the stuff, metrics on the pitches and stuff, movement. And haven’t looked at it yet, but just the swings and everything’s kind of telling me what I need to know — to see that come, that’s nice. Velocity is kind of the last piece to me. That’s definitely something I’d like to have a slow build with. But still, it seemed like the ball was getting on guys. I know it’s spring training, but definitely a good one.”

In the first inning, Strider needed only seven pitches — all seven were strikes — to retire the side. He struck out the second and third batters on three pitches each. One of his victims: Vaughn Grissom, his former teammate. Another: Roman Anthony, ranked as the top position-player prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline. (Welcome to big-league pitching, Mr. Anthony.)

Strider is fierce and competitive. This was true Monday. But he had fun being out there. He remembers his first start after Tommy John surgery in college and the excitement that came with it. On that day, nothing could put him in a bad mood.

On Monday?

“After the first inning was definitely a rare emotional moment for me on the field where I was happy instead of just angry at the world,” Strider said jokingly. “It’s a good feeling.”

In the second inning, Strider struck out the side. One of those guys was Marcelo Mayer, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 12 prospect in baseball. (Welcome to big-league pitching, Mr. Mayer.) And in this second frame, Strider threw his first ball — on his 10th pitch. But Strider had only thrown only 19 pitches through two, so he went out for a third inning.

The Braves and Strider were targeting around 30 pitches for the right-hander. After he struck out a batter, his sixth in eight at-bats, Braves manager Brian Snitker removed him from the game.

Officially, spring training results don’t count. Contextually, they can sometimes be meaningless. But this? This truly was encouraging for the Braves, who could add Strider to their starting rotation in late April. Barring a setback, he’s clearly in a positive spot.

“Let’s not forget, he’s still the best pitcher on this team,” Chris Sale, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, said of his teammate on Monday morning. “There’s no question about that. You look at the pure stuff and what he’s done when he’s healthy out there on the mound. He’s potentially the most electric pitcher in the entire game. You add that to who we already have on this team and in the clubhouse and on the (pitching) staff, it just adds to kind of the toughness of this team. And going into a series having him throwing one of those games makes it tougher on the other team, no question.”

Strider is so diligent and detail-oriented in his work. If there were anyone who would come back from a second surgery and be better, it would be him. And throughout the years, Snitker, who has spent his entire career in the Braves organization, has seen many guys with similar traits.

“Well, all those Hall of Famers that I had that I was blessed to be able to be a part of, when I was coaching third (for the big-league team), and just watching those guys, you see them as they come up through the minor leagues and get here,” said Snitker, who spent many years managing in the minors before getting the major-league job. “Chris (Sale) is one of those. (Spencer) Schwellenbach is going to be one of those guys, too, as he learns this and experiences it. It’s why those guys are so good for so long, I think, is how they prepare and their outlook on a long season.”

Strider also is a proponent of the mental game. He’s done a ton of work on mindfulness and maintaining a healthy, effective process for himself. This is one reason he took the second surgery so well. When it happened, there was nothing he could do except focus on how it could help him improve.

This is what stuck out to Sale, who had Tommy John surgery himself and has had lost seasons because of injury. Sale would see Strider in the home clubhouse last season, and learned a lot about him.

“There were no real down, sulking moments, really,” Sale said. “He, no pun intended, took it in stride. Obviously, I was there when he came out of that game (against the Diamondbacks), and it seemed like he knew pretty immediately. And then once the news was broken, it was like, ‘OK, well, what’s the next step?’ There was just always this want for the progression. There was no time to really sit around and complain about what bad happened. He was like, ‘OK, let’s get to work.’ And every day that I’ve seen him, he’s done something to get better and to further himself in this rehab and in being a better baseball player.”

One such example: Strider did a lot of work on his lower-half timing. He had identified that as an area he could improve. On Monday, Strider commanded all of his pitches, which was a sign that his work had paid off. He’s where he needs to be. Not every start will be this dominant, but he seemingly took a step forward during his rehab year.

“I think command, for sure,” Strider said of what lower-half timing helps. “To me, that indicates a lot of the effortless velocity. I don’t feel like I was really getting on it, I don’t feel like I was muscling, any of that stuff. Those are the days when the command is usually off. I think the misconception — and this is a generalization — is that velocity kind of comes at the expense of command. I think that science tells us otherwise. If your body is synced up and moving consistently, it’s usually working well, which means your command and your velocity will both be where they’d want to be or where they’re good. Just the strikes with all four pitches today, to me, is just a really exciting validation of the direction we’re going in.”

After each outing, Strider jots down his thoughts — objective and subjective — in a notebook. He keeps a notebook for each season. Last year, his notebook centered on his rehab process. This year’s will be for the 2025 season.

Following Monday’s start, he was most curious to dig into where his mind was throughout the entire day.

“It’s good to be present, be mindful and notice: Is everything frustrating me today? Am I checking out for long periods of time? Just to kind of acknowledge what’s going on in your head,” Strider said. “With a game today, I think that’s what I’m most interested in trying to analyze is, compared to other outings, compared to other parts of rehab, where was my focus at? How did I handle that stuff? What adjustments can I make to the routine to try to accentuate the focus on the goals that I want to have?”

This much is clear: Monday was a success, even if it’s not the final step in the journey — or even close to it.

After Strider retired the eighth and final batter of his outing, he began walking off the mound before Snitker even got there. Oops.

That’s how long it had been since he’d toed the rubber.

“I have not pitched in a while, so I forget how many outs there are in an inning,” Strider joked. “I was not a math major in college either, so counting to three is a big chore for me. I knew that I wasn’t finishing the inning, so I think I just got a little ahead of myself and remembered that they’ve gotta come get me, I can’t just walk off. You have to have adult supervision.”