The Seattle Mariners lefty completed his first bullpen session of spring training without any problems with his left foot, which needed surgery almost three weeks ago to remove a bone spur.
"It wasn't as sharp as I would like, but it's the first time I've been off the mound in a little while, so I guess that's to be expected," Lee said after a conditioning run and 10 minutes of pitching. "I feel good. The foot's fine. The body feels good, so now I need to get in shape and get off the mound more and catch up with everyone else."
Lee reported to Mariners camp a week ago with a bandage wrapped around his foot, even though he said he was ready to pitch. The Mariners took precautions, limiting Lee -- a former AL Cy Young Award winner whom they traded for with Philadelphia in the offseason -- to agility drills and fielding practice.
The 31-year-old Lee said he threw all of his pitches and wasn't thinking about his foot. He was focused on locating fastballs, having only thrown off a mound once in the offseason before he needed surgery.
"I was pretty certain when I first got here, I could jump right in with everyone, but it was kind of a better-safe-than-sorry approach at that point," Lee said.
He'll toss another session in a couple of days, with the hope that he'll be ready for the rotation in spring training games. The other Seattle pitchers have been pitching from a mound since last week.
"Once I get going, I'll catch up. It's still way early," Lee said. "There's a lot of teams that haven't even really started going full tilt yet, so looking at it that way, I guess I'm not that far behind."
Meanwhile at Mariners camp Wednesday, infielder Jose Lopez returned to his normal position -- second base -- after taking ground balls at third in the team's first full-squad workout Tuesday.
The Mariners said they were only taking a look at Lopez at third, with Chone Figgins working at second base.
Both Lopez and Figgins, a free agent signed from the Los Angeles Angels, worked at second base Wednesday.
Lopez, a 2006 AL All-Star, said he last played third base for the Mariners in 2007, for a few games.
"It's no big deal. I'll try it," Lopez said. "We'll see how I feel at third base. It was only a question about what could happen this season. Right now in spring training, I had a good conversation with [manager Don Wakamatsu]. He didn't tell me he'll put me at third, didn't say second. Only that we'd try it out, but that it's more important how I feel."
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