Eaton plans to make long-awaited return Saturday

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Adam Eaton's long-awaited day has finally arrived. Nearly 11 months after tearing the ACL in his left knee, the Nationals outfielder will be in the lineup Saturday playing in a major league spring training game for the first time.

"It's time to go," he said, "and we're going to go."

Eaton is penciled in to bat third and start in left field when the Nationals face the Mets. He'll get two at-bats and play multiple innings in the field, with no restrictions beyond the common-sense directive not to do anything with more exertion than normally is called for in mid-March.

"I'm not going to say a word, but hopefully he's smart enough to know that we want to him to kind of ease his way in," manager Davey Martinez said. "Sometimes when you tell a guy to do less, they do more."

Though this will be Eaton's first game appearance in public, it's not the first time he'll be in game situations this spring. He has spent much of the last two weeks participating in minor league games on the fields behind FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, taking advantage of the controlled environment and lack of hard rules to get extra at-bats (he estimates 50-to-60 overall) and choose when and how he wanted to run the bases.

Eaton played left field for the first time in one of those minor league games Thursday and emerged believing he's ready to transition to the big field for the remaining 10 days of camp. At the plate, he has no concerns. In the field, he simply needs to start getting more reps.

"That's going to be my main focus when I get out there, just playing defense and learning left field," he said. "That's the only thing I think I need catching up on. At-bats, I'm there. I'm way more advanced than I was there. And overall my body feels great because I haven't done a lot of standing. I haven't had the long innings and stuff like that. So I think I'm going to feel fresher when we're in the season."

Eaton said he feels as fast as he was pre-injury once he gets going on the bases, but he admits his initial "explosion" isn't where he wants it to be yet. He doesn't think it will take long for it to return.

"Once we start playing every day, I'm hoping history repeats itself and it comes back a little more readily available," he said. "But they keep telling me that's how it goes. Day to day, you continue to get better. And all of a sudden one day, it'll just be like normal. I trust them. They've gotten me this far."

Joining Eaton in Saturday's lineup will be Michael A. Taylor, who hasn't played since March 4 due to tightness in his right side. Taylor did get approximately 20 at-bats over the course of several days in minor league camp and reported no issues, so he's been cleared to return and play center field.

"Body's feeling good," he said. "The oblique and everything like that is responding well."

Ryan Zimmerman, meanwhile, still has only one Grapefruit League game on his register this spring, but the veteran first baseman insists there's nothing physically wrong with him. He has been playing most days in minor league games, getting extra at-bats and limiting his time in the field in an attempt to keep himself fresher entering the season.

"He's good," Martinez said. "He just wants to continue to do things, and I'm OK with it. He's getting his at-bats. He takes a bunch of ground balls every day. So we're good."