JUPITER, Fla. - It's a bit of a transition day for the Nationals as far as the lineup goes. Most of the regulars played last night. And with split-squad games tomorrow, pretty much everyone will play either at home against the Marlins or in Port St. Lucie against the Mets. Which means most of the big names get tonight's game off.
The most noteworthy guys in this lineup are Kurt Suzuki and Asdrúbal Cabrera. The rest are fringe players trying to force their way onto the opening day roster or...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Daniel Hudson pitched the ninth inning of three postseason clinching Nationals wins last October. He recorded the final three outs of the National League wild card game, preserving a 3-2 victory over the Brewers. He notched the final four outs of the team's NL pennant-clinching win over the Cardinals. And when it came time for the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Davey Martinez handed the ball to him and watched as he finished off the Astros and set off a...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The games down here don't count, so the Nationals could afford to brush off tonight's 11-0 trouncing at the hands of a split-squad Cardinals team as insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
And that's probably a fair reaction to a blowout loss on March 5. Really, what conclusions can reasonably be drawn from a game like this?
Still, it had to be at least a little concerning for Davey Martinez to watch three of his most important pitchers get roughed up by a...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals are fielding a lineup loaded with regulars tonight. Well, loaded with healthy regulars. A few guys who normally would be playing remain sidelined with nagging ailments.
The list includes Adam Eaton, who departed Tuesday's game with a tight left hamstring. The veteran right fielder apparently didn't think the injury was serious and only came out of the game after mentioning it to teammate Howie Kendrick, who then informed manager Davey Martinez.
Martinez...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Hello once again from FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. It's good to be back after a brief trip home. Thanks as always to Pete Kerzel for filling in during my break. I'll be here the rest of camp, and hopefully things start to ramp up soon as opening day inches closer.
The Nationals, who just enjoyed their first of two days off this spring, are back at it tonight with a lineup loaded with regulars. In fact, this may well give us a clue about Davey Martinez's...
Spring training is only 33 percent complete at this point. Two weeks have passed since pitchers and catchers reported to West Palm Beach. Four weeks remain until the Nationals face the Mets at Citi Field and officially begin their title defense.
So it's probably unfair to start drawing any conclusions yet. But it's not unfair to point out some things that appear to be going well at Nats camp and some things that appear not to be going so well.
With that in mind - and since I'm writing this...
TAMPA, Fla. - Joe Ross could be forgiven if he was feeling a bit antsy before taking the mound at Steinbrenner Field this afternoon for his long-awaited spring debut.
He thought he was going to pitch last weekend in West Palm Beach, and even warmed up to relieve Max Scherzer in the Grapefruit League opener, but watched the heavens open up and force the cancellation of the game. That led to an extra four days' wait before his turn came up again this afternoon.
But in order to pitch today, Ross...
TAMPA, Fla. - Davey Martinez has been talking about it much of the winter and through the first two weeks of the spring. Today the Nationals manager will finally see his unconventional lineup idea in action: Trea Turner is batting third against the Yankees.
It's not a perfect way to evaluate this lineup wrinkle, because only three players guaranteed to be in the opening day lineup (Turner, Victor Robles, Starlin Castro) made the 3 1/2-hour trip from West Palm Beach for today's exhibition...
JUPITER, Fla. - It was a home run off a minor league reliever on Feb. 25. It's not going to make Juan Soto any money or help the Nationals win any games that actually matter.
And yet it was impossible to watch Soto's blast off Cardinals right-hander Seth Elledge during Tuesday's 9-6 exhibition win and not react with the same astonishment and approval that accompanies any gargantuan blast by the 21-year-old star slugger.
Soto's homer, the first by a Nationals batter so far this spring, came...
TAMPA - The Nationals' spring relocation from Viera to West Palm Beach three years ago dramatically reduced the amount of time players have to spend on buses traveling to road games. But it didn't completely eliminate long trips from the Grapefruit League schedule.
Today the Nats make their longest trek of the spring, a full 204-mile jaunt across the state of Florida to Tampa, where they are scheduled to face the Yankees this afternoon. Scheduled, that is, weather permitting. There's rain...
JUPITER, Fla. - It's easy to forget now, because - like the Nationals as a whole - AnÃbal Sánchez was so good from late May through late October. But you may recall that the veteran right-hander's first six weeks with the club were an abject disaster.
When he took the mound on May 16 to face the Mets, Sánchez was 0-6 with a 5.27 ERA. He had allowed 69 batters to reach base in only 41 innings. A skeptic would've called his signing (two years for $19 million) a massive fail by general...
JUPITER, Fla. - Davey Martinez isn't about to announce his rotation order to begin the season. There's too much time and too many things that could happen to throw a wrench into his plans.
But with all of the regular starters now lined up here in Florida, it's not hard to extrapolate things out and see how it all projects for March 26 and beyond.
The key revelations that came today from the Nationals manager: Stephen Strasburg will make his spring debut Friday against the Rays after throwing...
JUPITER, Fla. - Spring training lineups don't always resemble regular season lineups. And today presents the perfect reminder of that.
Eric Thames is leading off for the Nationals against the Cardinals, with Kurt Suzuki batting second. Has Davey Martinez lost his mind? No. This is simply a way to get two veterans two quick at-bats and then let them head home. You won't be seeing this 1-2 combo at any point during the regular season.
We'll also see Howie Kendrick batting behind Juan Soto, a...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The most significant of Major League Baseball's rule changes for the upcoming season is the three-batter minimum that will now be required for every reliever that enters a game. (With an exception granted for anyone who finishes an inning, even if it's only one batter.)
Less discussed but not necessarily less significant is the addition of a 26th man to the active roster. For as far back as any of us can remember, a baseball roster consisted of 25 players. "We're...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It's not entirely accurate to say the Nationals never saw the real Roenis ElÃas last season.
"We saw it," manager Davey Martinez said. "The first day. Then after that ..."
This is true. Acquired from the Mariners on July 31 to help fix the Nats' major bullpen woes, ElÃas made his debut two nights later in Arizona, summoned by Martinez with one out in the bottom of the sixth. The lefty got David Peralta to fly out, then struck out Adam Jones. All good,...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - There is a month's worth of exhibition games to play, and there will be countless opportunities for Carter Kieboom to make his case to be the Nationals' opening day third baseman. What happens right now may have little to no bearing on the club's ultimate decision.
But every game Kieboom plays, he is going to be scrutinized more than perhaps any other player in camp. And so the 22-year-old wasn't surprised this morning when reporters approached him to ask about his...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - In deciding to delay Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin's first starts of the spring a few days, the Nationals have opened the door for some younger pitchers to get an opportunity to take the mound for the first and second innings this week.
Today, that young pitcher will be Wil Crowe, who gets the start against a Mets lineup featuring plenty of regulars.
Crowe, a second-round pick in 2017, split last season between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Fresno, where he...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Brandon Snyder would be the first to admit this was nothing like what the rest of the Nationals experienced the last time they faced the Astros, when the stakes were just a bit higher.
While his teammates were hoisting the Commissioner's Trophy in Houston on Oct. 30, Snyder was watching on television with a buddy at his home in Warrenton, Va. He was a member of the organization and knew all the guys who had just won the World Series, but he spent the season playing at...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Austin Voth, Joe Ross and Erick Fedde all sit next to each other in the Nationals clubhouse this spring. They all hang out together. They all want one another to do well.
And yet, each knows the harsh truth: Only one of the three is going to open the season in the Nats rotation. One other is likely to get a spot in the bullpen. Which means one is destined for the minor leagues.
"These two guys are my friends, and if I had it my way, I would want them on the team," Voth...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - They aren't holding anybody back because of injury, but the Nationals are easing a few of their veterans into game action this spring, most notably members of their rotation.
Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin won't make a start the first time through the rotation this week, instead throwing live batting practice one more time before debuting in a Grapefruit League game.
"It's all putting them in a controlled environment, where they can slow down if they want to,"...