Nats’ Strasburg misses first start with hand injury

World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg was scratched from what was supposed to be his first start of the season for the Washington Nationals on Saturday night because of a nerve issue with his right hand.

Nationals manager Dave Martinez announced about four hours before the scheduled first pitch against the visiting New York Yankees that Strasburg would be replaced as his team’s starter by Erick Fedde.

Strasburg described the problem as a nerve impingement in his wrist and said it initially arose early this month when teams reconvened for a ramp-up to the regular season. One of the first symptoms was that his hand would fall asleep.

He felt something wrong from his wrist to his thumb, particularly during his most recent appearance, in an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles last week.

“It got to the point where I didn’t have the same feeling in my hand holding the ball,” Strasburg said, “and it was affecting my ability to command the baseball the way I’m accustomed to.”

The right-hander said he felt improvement in his fingers after receiving his “last shot” on Friday — both he and Martinez likened the treatment to a cortisone injection — but Strasburg didn’t elaborate when asked whether that meant he got more than one.

“Nerve issues are pretty fickle,” Strasburg said.

He said he hopes resting now will allow him to “be back much sooner than if I try to gut it out at this point.”

Strasburg said he wasn’t “extremely concerned” and doubts he will be sidelined for too long.

Martinez’s take: “Hopefully this is a day-today thing. We want to be cautious.”

Martinez said this was unrelated to a forearm problem Strasburg dealt with in the past.

In 2019, Strasburg became the first pitcher to finish a postseason with a 5-0 record, helping the Nationals claim the franchise’s first championship. He then opted out of what was left on his contract and re-signed with Washington for $245 million over seven years.

Strasburg, who turned 32 on Monday, made every start last season, 33 in all, and topped the NL with 209 innings and 18 wins. After more than 10 trips to the injured list over the years — including two per year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 — he did not miss any time in 2019.

He went 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA and 251 strikeouts, then followed that up with his spectacular postseason: 1.98 ERA, 47 strikeouts, just four walks, 36 1/3 innings. NATIONALS’ BARRERA SUSPENDED 80 GAMES FOR PEDS >> Washington Nationals catcher Tres Barrera was suspended 80 games without pay by Major League Baseball after testing positive for an anabolic steroid. MLB said Barrera, a 25-year-old who made his major league debut last September, tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone or DHCMT, the chemical compound used in a drug that fueled Olympic athletes in the former East Germany decades ago.