WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Good news: The skies have cleared, the rain is long gone and it should be a beautiful day for baseball. So beautiful, the Nationals are going to play two - at the same time. It's a split-squad day, with half of the guys staying home to face the Astros again while the other half of the roster goes to Jupiter to face the Marlins.
t'll be our first opportunity to see two of the pitchers battling for the No. 5 starter's job, with Austin Voth going up against the Astros...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If Max Scherzer has proven nothing else, it's that he'll never take the mound with anything less than 100 percent commitment to compete. Having said that, not all starts are created equal. And a start on Feb. 22 can never compare to a start on Oct. 30, even if the opponent is the same.
"The last game I pitched was Game 7 of the World Series. And we're talking about spring training," Scherzer said Saturday night after making his 2020 exhibition debut. "So it's a...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - They came to cheer the defending World Series champs and boo the runners up. And they did so at every possible opportunity.
Any mention of the Nationals (technically, the visiting team) tonight in the Grapefruit League opener at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches - a game that wound up getting canceled after two scoreless innings due to a persistent rain that would not go away - was met with rousing cheers from the thousands of red-clad fans who made their way down...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals' first injury of the spring may not involve a member of the 40-man roster, but it does involve a veteran trying to squeeze his way onto the opening day roster.
Welington Castillo, a catcher with 10 years of big league experience, was due to DH in tonight's Grapefruit League opener but was scratched with a sore right shoulder.
Davey Martinez said Castillo approached him earlier today and informed him of the ailment. The manager didn't hesitate to give him...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - One hundred fifteen days have passed since the Nationals and Astros last took the field, a late October night that will forever bring smiles to anyone who lives in Washington and tears to anyone who lives in Houston. Tonight, both teams return to begin their quest to reach late October again.
The Grapefruit League opener is a big deal any spring, but it's never been as big a deal as it is tonight. In a perfect convergence of events, this game between co-inhabitants of...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Dusty Baker stood near one of the practice fields outside FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches on Thursday morning, wearing an Astros cap and pullover, answering questions about the team he now manages. He looked very much at home, very much in his element.
The 70-year-old baseball lifer has done everything there is to do in this sport, and yet he has now found perhaps the ultimate challenge of his career: guiding a Houston roster loaded with talent but stained by proof...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Tony Clark, head of the Major League Baseball Players' Association, visits every club every spring. Those meetings can run long, sometimes topping two hours, depending on the list of topics that need to be discussed.
This morning, Clark and his associates with the players' union, walked into the Astros clubhouse at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and did not emerge until nearly four hours had passed.
Suffice it to say, this was no ordinary spring training meeting,...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - After more than a week of bright sunshine and temperatures in the mid-80s, the Nationals walked outside this morning to an unfamiliar sight this spring: rain.
For the first time in camp, weather altered the club's plans. What should've been a two-hour full squad workout instead was condensed into a quick session that took care of the day's most pressing needs (a group of pitchers throwing live batting practice, moved to the covered batting cages) and little...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It didn't compare to the parade they threw the Nationals in Washington three days after Game 7 of the World Series. How could it?
Maybe there weren't hundreds of thousands of fans lining Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach on Thursday evening. But those who did turn out - and there were plenty who did - were treated to a yet another nice celebration of the 2019 champs, this one in their spring home.
"I am very impressed with all the players that are here,"...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Erick Fedde got a text message from his father in December. The message was brief: "Hey, I was reading an article online saying you have a fourth option."
Fedde's reply was direct and didn't mince words: "Dad, don't be dumb. Fourth options are not a thing."
Everyone in baseball, certainly younger players who bounce up and down between the minor and major leagues, knows you only have three option years. In other words, you can only be demoted to the minors in three...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Starlin Castro came to Nationals camp with a revamped swing that results in more balls pulled in the air and fewer balls on the ground, a swing that produced big numbers late last season with the Marlins. But the first live pitcher he had to face here was immune to such tweaks.
Castro groaned Wednesday when he found out he was hitting against Max Scherzer, a longtime nemesis when facing him as an opponent. And sure enough, there wasn't much contact to speak of when the...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Spring training life for the defending champions is a bit different than in previous years. There are questions about trying to repeat. New signs all over the place touting last fall's achievement. Fingers to be sized for championship rings. Everybody's in a good mood, for good reason.
But there's something lacking from Nationals camp so far, something that can be found at other camps across Florida and Arizona, something that could be found around here in many...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The casual observer should be awfully careful reading too much into a team's lineup during the early days of spring training. With many veterans resting and those who do play often batting high in the order so they can get a couple of at-bats and get out of there, there isn't a whole lot worth interpreting.
That said, don't be surprised at all if you see Trea Turner batting third sometime in the next week or so. It doesn't mean he's going to bat third for the...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Max Scherzer offered up a simple, yet important, takeaway from his first session throwing to live hitters this spring.
"I'm sore in all the right spots," he said.
For the uninitiated, there's no reason to be alarmed. Scherzer knows the difference between being "sore," being "hurt" and being "injured." Sore is good. Hurt is potentially worrisome. Injured is full-blown panic attack.
After a long and grueling season that saw him make a prolonged stint on the...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The note was visible to all at the top of the video board inside the Nationals clubhouse: "Ring fitting Wednesday and Thursday."
Add this to the growing list of developments that remind everyone the Nats' World Series victory really did happen.
Players, coaches, support staff and front office executives all will be fitted for their championship rings over the next two days. The finished products will be presented to everybody prior to the Nationals' second home game...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals' first full-squad workout of 2020 began with an extra-long "Circle of Trust" meeting that at one point featured team massage therapist Patrick Panico's cannonball into the adjacent pool but most importantly featured a hammering home of the overriding message Davey Martinez wants to convey to a club seeking to repeat as World Series champions.
"Process. Process. Process," the manager said. "For us, the word 'repeat' doesn't mean anything, except to...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Howie Kendrick went home to Arizona a few days after the World Series ended, a free agent with no assurances of returning to the same Nationals club he had just helped lead to victory.
There was reason to wonder if the defending champs would want to bring back a 36-year-old utility man coming off far and away the best season of his career. Not that they didn't love Kendrick and his contributions, but what were the odds he could duplicate that performance at this...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The 21-year-old said what you expect most 21-year-old outfielders to say when asked for their goal upon reporting to spring training.
"I come here to make the team," the young outfielder said. "I'm going to fight for my place. I'm going to keep working hard, keep playing baseball the right way. Because it's a lot of new players, a lot of new outfielders, and you don't want to get comfortable on this team. You want to keep going. I come here to play for one spot,...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - If it wasn't already clear before, Davey Martinez today made his plan for the Nationals infield this spring very clear.
Starlin Castro will get all of his work at second base for now. Carter Kieboom will get all of his work at third base for now. Asdrúbal Cabrera will get the bulk of his work at third base. Howie Kendrick will work mostly at first and second bases for now, but will get some action at third later in camp.
Though this new conglomeration of Nationals...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Ryan Zimmerman has been coming to Florida for 15 springs now, during which time he's taken 740 official plate appearances, amassing 43 homers and 136 RBIs, batting .320 with a .955 OPS.
Suffice it to say, Zimmerman knows the routine. He knows how much work he needs to feel ready for opening day, and that typically is contingent on the physical state of his body.
When he didn't feel 100 percent two springs ago, Zimmerman basically took the entire Grapefruit League...