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,"...
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...