NORTH PORT, Fla. — Atlanta Braves great Dale Murphy was seated behind a screen with pitching coach Rick Kranitz and manager Brian Snitker when Spencer Strider threw what amounted to a glorified side session Friday at CoolToday Park. Right-handed and left-handed hitters alternated in the batter’s box but didn’t swing.

“Looks like he’s in midseason form to me,” said Murphy, a guest instructor this week at spring training, who was impressed after watching Strider loudly pop the catcher’s mitt with fastballs and drop sharply breaking curveballs in the strike zone during the early afternoon session on a crisp, breezy day.

It was the next increment in Strider’s progression from May elbow surgery, a step between the bullpen sessions he’s been throwing since winter and live batting practice, which he could begin within a couple of weeks. The Braves aren’t divulging any specific timetable.

“Obviously I haven’t been on a mound in pants and cleats and a jersey in a while,” said Strider, describing how being in uniform for Friday’s session got his juices going more than throwing off a bullpen mound. “Not to be cliche or cheesy or anything, but of course, you do miss the game and you miss doing what you do. And definitely, standing out there you get touched back with like, man, I just love being out here. So that’s always exciting.

“And I’ve obviously been through this process before and I know what that feeling’s like, so I feel like I have a better appreciation for it.”

Spencer Strider threw a side session with hitters standing in the box but not swinging. Next step in his return will be live batting practice, no date set. #Braves pic.twitter.com/I5TyNkVv75

— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) February 21, 2025

Strider had Tommy John elbow surgery in 2019 while at Clemson. For the latest UCL repair in his pitching elbow, he had a less-invasive and relatively new procedure known as internal brace surgery. It has a rehabilitation timeline that’s generally three to four months shorter than the 12-16 months of rehab that most pitchers are using these days for Tommy John.

He had internal-brace surgery 10 months ago, and Strider said his arm feels great. “Sooner rather than later” is all the Braves are saying about his ETA to join the major-league rotation. However, late April seems a reasonable target, especially given how well he’s throwing and the lack of any setbacks.

Kranitz had the idea of adding the step that Strider made Friday, rather than having him keep throwing regular bullpen sessions until he was ready for live batting practice.

“It was a great idea,” Snitker said, moments after he and Kranitz talked with Strider when he came off the field. “Just listening to (Strider), he said being out here on this diamond was good for him. I’ve been very encouraged by everything that he’s been doing.”

The Braves have not had to rein in Strider, to have him ease back on his workload or effort in side sessions, Snitker said. He’s a cerebral athlete who’s done all the research and knows exactly what is recommended, and after two elbow surgeries in under five years, the major-league wins and strikeouts leader in 2023 doesn’t want to do anything to risk the steady recovery progress he’s made.

Not when he can see the figurative light at the end of his rehab tunnel.

“We talked earlier in the week about just trying to make incremental steps, and coming out here and just changing the environment is another way to do that,” he said of Friday’s session, which was viewed by more than a dozen teammates who’d just finished batting practice, and perhaps a couple of hundred fans at CoolToday Park.

“And it’s a good way to try to bridge the gap between where I’m at now and where I ultimately want to be in games,” said Strider, who’s expected to pitch in at least one Grapefruit League game before the Braves break camp in Florida in just over a month. “So, try to keep taking steps and move forward.”

Live batting practice is the next step, but Strider said he didn’t know how soon that would be.

“That (live BP) doesn’t necessarily have to look mid-season form, nor do I expect it to,” he said. “But once they’re swinging, I’m trying to get guys out. So it’s another element and environmental change that can help bring out some competitive adrenaline and get things moving well.

“But we’ve done such a good job of building a base, making sure mechanics are in a good spot. My stuff and command have come along better than I could have expected. So I feel good about introducing new elements of competitiveness that will bring out the velo and adrenaline and everything.”

There were no radar-gun readings Friday; it would only have been counterproductive at this point in rehab.

“I don’t feel like I’ve really gotten close to 100 percent effort,” he said. “And I don’t know that I could outside of a competitive environment, I don’t know that it would be possible necessarily. I think we’re close (to the next step). I feel really good about it.

“That today went about as well as I could have asked for.”

Because the curveball was a pitch Strider added to his repertoire after the 2023 season, there has been plenty of speculation and unsolicited advice (from outside the organization) that he should abandon the pitch. The reasoning is that since he tore up his UCL after adding the pitch, it must have been a cause for the problem.

Strider, 26, said that doesn’t make sense and that he never thought of abandoning the pitch. His latest UCL injury was the result of a bone fragment becoming wedged in the ligament, a fragment that he was told resulted from calcification at some point following his 2019 Tommy John surgery.

Not from throwing a curveball.

So, there will be plenty of curveballs to go with his vaunted fastball-slider combo.

“I know some people have speculated, but those people, kindly, don’t have all the information,” Strider said. “So I appreciate their interest, but …”

He added that the effectiveness of the curveball specifically, and his dominant performance generally, at 2024 spring training was all the more surprising in retrospect.

“I’m constantly fascinated by how I was able to pitch as well as I did in spring training, with how I was moving, likely as a result of the condition my arm was in,” he said. “Because there were all kinds of things out of whack mechanically. So to adapt to throwing a new pitch as well as it did, it still blows my mind. It’s a million times easier now that I’ve got things moving the way I want. And consequently, manipulating the ball is a lot easier.”

Asked if he had added or subtracted anything from his repertoire, Strider said dryly, “There’s a knuckleball that’s going to come out. One game, I’m only going to throw knuckleballs. I won’t tell you when.”

Then he laughed.

His pitch mix is among the most dominant in baseball in recent years, even before he added the curveball.

“Someone asked what I would do facing him, and I said I don’t know,” said Murphy, the National League MVP in back-to-back seasons in 1982 and 1983, 15 years before Strider was born. “I was telling (coach and former Braves catcher) Eddie Perez, when we played we were told to hit that high fastball.”

The high fastball was usually a mistake when thrown in the mid-80 to low-90 mph range by pitchers in Murphy’s era. But it’s a pitch that’s a key part of the arsenal for many of today’s hardest throwers, none more than Strider.

He routinely makes hitters look bad trying to catch up to his upper-90s heaters at the top of the zone or above it, which have the appearance of rising because Strider, listed at 6 feet, is shorter than most pitchers and because he also has a significantly longer stride than most. The result is a release point much lower than other power pitchers, and a fastball that stays on plane and causes fits for so many of today’s “launch angle” uppercut swings.

When healthy, Strider has been a sensational pitcher, and the Braves are eager to add him to a rotation that returns the trio of Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale, Reynaldo López (1.99 ERA in his move back from relieving to starting last season) and Spencer Schwellenbach, who was outstanding as a rookie.

“I feel really good,” Strider said. “I took a long time to start throwing — longer than some protocols for a brace repair suggest. And that was mostly out of necessity because of the calendar. You know, if I had been doing this (stage of his rehab) in December, that wouldn’t have really mattered. So, I think that’s definitely helped.

“And I’m in better shape and I’m smarter because of the people I’m around and the level I’m at, and I’ve got great people advising me. So, yeah, I’ve been unfortunate that I’m bouncing back pretty well.”