As much as they've tried to make this feel like a normal spring training, there are certain unavoidable differences from previous Nationals camps because of COVID-19 protocols.
Like the limited number of opponents. Because Major League Baseball decided to reduce travel across the state of Florida, the Nats are only playing the four other clubs that train within 45 minutes of West Palm Beach: the Astros, Cardinals, Marlins and Mets.
That leads to a whole lot of repeat matchups against teams...
After their first true day off of the spring, the Nationals are back in action tonight in West Palm Beach, facing the Mets. And tonight marks the end of the second turn through the projected rotation.
Joe Ross is on the mound for his second start, looking to build off a solid debut against this same New York lineup in which he threw 39 pitches across 1 2/3 innings and struck out three. Though nobody is saying it out loud, it seems pretty clear Ross is the planned No. 5 starter entering the...
There are only 19 days to go until opening night at Nationals Park, and there are still a whole lot of decisions that must be made before then. Will Joe Ross be the No. 5 starter? Will Victor Robles be leading off? Will Carter Kieboom be the starting third baseman? Who will round out the bullpen and the bench?
Oh, yeah, and this little question that still needs to be answered: Will any fans be allowed in the park to watch the Nationals and Mets open the season?
In some respects, it's kind of...
The Nationals are off today, and there is some strange symbolism to be found there, because exactly one year ago, they played one of the final six games to be held in Florida before Major League Baseball shut down all spring training operations.
March 12, 2020, was a day unlike any we'd ever experienced. It was surreal. It was filled with uncertainty. It was, as it turned out, the end of an era.
"It was tough," manager Davey Martinez said Thursday, reminiscing about the one-year anniversary...
When Patrick Corbin pitched 364 days ago - in what proved to be the final game of spring training 2020 before Major League Baseball shut down in response to the rapidly growing pandemic - his fastball hovered in the 87-88 mph range. And though it ticked up to an average of 90 mph once the season finally took place last summer, it wasn't enough to prevent the left-hander from giving up the most hits in the league.
When Corbin pitched this afternoon in Jupiter, Fla., in his second start of this...
Juan Soto reported to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches this morning, feeling better after spending Wednesday at home with what was believed to be a sinus issue, and wanted to play in the Nationals' exhibition game against the Marlins.
And Davey Martinez initially put Soto in his lineup. He was batting second, behind Victor Robles and ahead of Trea Turner in the latest attempt by the manager to see if that new-look trio atop the order could work.
Then Martinez thought better of it. Soto was...
Another day, another opportunity for Davey Martinez to try out what appears to be his preferred opening day lineup. That's the one that opens with Victor Robles, Juan Soto and Trea Turner, in that order.
At this point, it should be clear Martinez really, really, really wants Robles to prove he can handle the leadoff spot. And though he has flip-flopped Soto and Turner in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, this arrangement (with Turner serving as Soto's protection) seems to be the manager's...
There are two types of ballplayers in any spring training camp: Those who know they can use this time to prepare themselves for the regular season, and those who believe they need to perform now to have a chance to still be around for the regular season.
As much as everyone wishes he was in the first category, the truth is many are left stuck in the latter group. These are the guys who are competing for jobs, and because of that they often feel like their spring numbers matter a lot more than...
After using his first start of the spring to make sure his sprained left ankle was healed and his pitching mechanics were still in proper form, Max Scherzer remarked that his objective was to "go out there, get my work in and worry about getting the intensity later."
It appears five days counts as "later" in Scherzer's mind.
Making his second start of the spring this afternoon in West Palm Beach, Fla., Scherzer looked like a midseason version of himself. He faced nine Cardinals batters and...
Though he didn't quite know it at the time, Jon Lester does know he wasn't feeling right at least a year ago.
The veteran left-hander, who has built a legacy as one of baseball's true workhorses, noticed he didn't have as much energy as he used to. He would take the mound at Wrigley Field at times last season and feel way more fatigued than should've been at that stage of a game.
"There would be times where I would run out in the fifth, sixth, seventh inning and feel like I hit a brick...
The second half of spring training begins today. Yep, 20 days have passed and 20 days remain before the Nationals break camp and head north. So this is about the time when things begin to start ramping up a bit, when pitchers start pitching more, when regulars start playing more.
In that vein, Max Scherzer today makes his second start of the spring. He threw 38 pitches over 1 2/3 innings Friday night against the Cardinals. Today, against the same St. Louis squad, he's scheduled to throw 50...
Josh Harrison has been an everyday player. From 2014-17, he took an average of 516 plate appearances for the Pirates and managed to earn two All-Star selections and even a ninth-place finish in National League MVP voting.
Harrison's true value, though, lies in his ability to do what most others in baseball cannot do: play multiple positions well while still providing a quality bat. Which means the 33-year-old is more valuable to a club not when he's in the lineup daily, but when he's coming...
The two times Stephen Strasburg took the mound in 2020, Davey Martinez couldn't help but watch nervously, knowing his co-ace was dealing with some kind of ailment in his right hand. And as he watched Strasburg the first few times he threw off a mound this spring in West Palm Beach, Fla., the fourth-year manager again had to at least think about his pitcher's surgically repaired wrist and hope there weren't any lingering issues.
But by the time Strasburg strode to the mound inside The...
Jon Lester's Nationals debut won't come quite as soon as everyone initially hoped it might.
The veteran left-hander, recovering from surgery to remove his thyroid gland, is now back in West Palm Beach, Fla., and picking up where he left off when he departed town last week for the procedure. But despite some thought at first he might pitch in a Grapefruit League game by the end of this week, the club has now decided to bring him along a bit slower.
"He did some exercises yesterday, he did...
The last time Stephen Strasburg pitched in a game, he didn't make it out of the first inning. Three batters into his Aug. 14 against the Orioles at Camden Yards, the right-hander departed with an all-too-familiar slump of his shoulders, another injury having prevented him from pitching.
Seven months later, Strasburg is back on the mound tonight. The carpal tunnel neuritis that plagued his wrist and caused his hand to go numb last summer has been fixed. By all accounts, he's healthy and good...
The Nationals liked their bullpen depth before they ever signed Jeremy Jeffress, so they clearly still like their bullpen depth even after releasing Jeffress on Sunday for non-performance reasons.
But they do need a couple of less-proven relievers to step up and prove they deserve to be trusted by manager Davey Martinez to get important outs when the season begins.
The Nats' top four relief arms - Brad Hand, Daniel Hudson, Will Harris, Tanner Rainey - are set to handle the late innings. The...
For nearly a year, Joe Ross had only been able to play catch with his brother, Tyson, or perhaps face a few hitters on a field at home in California. Finally this spring, there were a couple of sessions of live batting practice against his Nationals teammates, but still not an actual game against another team wearing a different uniform.
So while today's Grapefruit League exhibition in West Palm Beach, Fla., between the Nats and Mets may not have meant much to most of the participants, it...
Though they will not reveal any reasons for Sunday's release of reliever Jeremy Jeffress, the Nationals are acknowledging the surprise move was not for baseball reasons.
General manager Mike Rizzo, speaking to reporters via Zoom this morning from West Palm Beach, Fla., repeated the unusual phrase he provided Sunday in announcing the Jeffress release, saying only it was for "personnel reasons." Rizzo deflected several follow-up questions seeking a more detailed explanation but did concede...
Slowly but surely, the Nationals are putting a team on the field that resembles the one we'll see in April. And today's game against the Mets might feature the closest yet.
The lineup is full of regulars, with the added twist of Ryan Zimmerman at first base. And with Victor Robles again leading off, that creates a whole lot of depth. To wit: Starlin Castro is batting seventh in this arrangement. That's an awfully good No. 7 hitter.
Davey Martinez does have Trea Turner batting second, ahead...
In a short 2020 season filled with frustrating loses, the Nationals' Sept. 20 doubleheader opener in Miami was especially agonizing. The seven-inning game was tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Max Scherzer loaded the bases with two outs, then thought he was out of the jam when he got Starling Marte to ground to third on his 119th pitch of the afternoon, only to watch in horror as Eric Thames dropped Carter Kieboom's low throw.
That sequence was so emblematic of the Nats' disappointing...