Jose Fernandez's Stuff, Homer in 2015 Debut Reignite Superstardom

On Thursday afternoon in Miami, Major League Baseball welcomed back a guy who was a rising superstar not too long ago.

And based on what he showed, it looks like he's ready to be a rising superstar again.

Unless you have an outdated perspective of Matt Cain, you'll know we're talking about young Miami Marlins right-hander Jose Fernandez. After being felled by Tommy John surgery last May, the 2013 National League Rookie of the Year made his 2015 debut on Thursday against the San Francisco Giants. And though he wasn't at his best, he reminded the baseball world what it's been missing.

In leading the Marlins to a 5-4 win, Fernandez allowed three earned runs on seven hits, no walks and six strikeouts in six innings. That's a solid performance, and Fernandez looked the part of his old self in putting it together. He showed off electric stuff and generally pitched like a 6'2", 215-pound bundle of swagger.

Oh, and he also made his presence felt at the plate with a solo home run off of Cain in the fifth inning.

That was the second home run of Fernandez's career. And minus the fracas it caused, it was very much reminiscent of the first dinger Fernandez hit back in September 2013. There was the crack of the bat, the home run pose and the crowd packed into Marlins Park going various degrees of bonkers.

And, apparently, everyone has Fernandez's grandmother to thank for it.

"My abuela didn't tell me to have a good start like I was expecting," said Fernandez after the game, via the Marlins' Twitter. "She told me, 'Please hit a home run today.'"

And he did. And it was fun. And it was also important, igniting a four-run rally that ultimately decided the game for the Marlins.

All told, as the Marlins relayed here, it was a pretty good first day back at the office for the 22-year-old ace: 

Now, we do have to check ourselves and admit that "pretty good" does not equal "great."

Despite the home run and the buzz with which he pitched, Fernandez's performance on the mound was not his finest. It was only a quality start, and we know from the fact that he posted a 2.25 ERA—one of the best ever for such a young pitcher—across his first 36 career starts that he's capable of a much higher level of dominance.

But I wouldn't worry about that. Fernandez may not have gotten dominant results, but he did more than enough to tease that he's still capable of his old dominance.

For the most part, what made Fernandez such an overwhelming force in 2013 and 2014 was his electric stuff. His fastball was one of the nastiest in the business, and his curveball was a physics-defying force of nature.

And now for the good news: Based on what we saw on Thursday, Fernandez's Tommy John surgery didn't rob him of either of these things.

According to the raw PITCHf/x data at Brooks Baseball, Fernandez released his four-seam fastball at an average of 97.4 mph. That's even higher than the 96.6 mph that he was averaging in 2014, so he appears more than ready to pick up where he left off.

Of course, you don't necessarily need the numbers to deduce as much. It was evident early on that Fernandez had the heat, as his first strikeout of the day saw him get Matt Duffy looking at 99 mph (courtesy of MLB GIFs):

As for Fernandez's curveball, it didn't quite resemble its old self. Per Baseball Prospectus, his 2013-14 curveball had nine inches of horizontal movement, the kind of lateral run that only Adam Wainwright and Sonny Gray can match. On Thursday, Fernandez's curve averaged just under eight inches of lateral run.

However, this is nitpicky. Of the 27 curves Fernandez threw on Thursday, seven drew whiffs. That's a rate of 33 percent, which is almost double Fernandez's career rate.

So the stuff that made Fernandez a nightmare for hitters in '13 and '14? It's still there, and that alone is worthy of much rejoicing.

But as easy as it is to focus on the stuff, we shouldn't overlook that Fernandez also had pretty good command.

He didn't initially, mind you. Though Fernandez didn't walk anybody in the process of giving up two runs on three hits in the first inning, that rough beginning had much to do with how he wasn't sharp with his location. Put more harshly, he was all over the place.

But as Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle noted, Fernandez was quickly able to shake off his first-inning jitters and start hitting his spots:

That was indeed the case and a big reason why Fernandez allowed just four hits and one run (on a long home run by Gregor Blanco) in his next five innings of work. And when all his 89 pitches were accounted for, 68 went into the books as strikes.

Because it was inevitable, here's the part where we say it's just one start. One start is the ultimate small sample size, and that may go double for pitchers returning from long injury absences. Handling the outing they've been looking forward to for months is one challenge. Getting back into the grind is another challenge entirely.

But what the heck. Given the vibes of Fernandez's first day back, we can at least be excited in the moment. And looking forward, there's nothing wrong with being optimistic.

Before he got hurt, Fernandez had carved out niches both as one of baseball's most talented pitchers and as one of baseball's most entertaining players. And in his first day back on the job after a long layoff, he came back wearing both of these hats.

So today's not a day for pessimism. Rather, today's a day to give one of baseball's brightest young stars the welcome back he deserves and to hope he can stay for a while.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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