Espinosa stays right, while Williams talks left

VIERA, Fla. - Seems like Danny Espinosa is taking most of his fielding reps with Ian Desmond at shortstop while Yunel Escobar and Dan Uggla are handling second base. But the focus this spring training is on improving Espinosa's production at the plate. The career switch-hitter continues to take extra batting practice every day as he attempts to transition exclusively to a right-handed hitter. As Nationals manager Matt Williams told us earlier, that means spending more time standing in the box against right-handed pitchers even if it means neglecting fielding work.

"He feels good about the process," Williams said. "He feels good about competing righty-righty. So right now, we're working through the process of getting him comfortable. The true test will come in games when you've got somebody in an opposing jersey out there, snorting and throwing it as hard as they can. It's important to feel good about it going in. He's getting a chance to get his eyes acclimated to breaking balls and sinkers and things like that.

"Standing in bullpens and our pitchers have been very good about allowing him to come into their bullpen and into their work. They want him to do well, too. All that being said, he's doing well. And pretty soon we'll get a chance to get him in some games and let him feel that intensity ramp up a little bit."

Espinosa's change to the right side of the batter's box removes another left-handed hitter from the roster. Denard Span and Bryce Harper are the only two Nationals in the everyday lineup that hit from the left side. Outfielder Nate McClouth will likely provide a left-handed bat off the bench and backup catcher Jose Lobaton is a switch-hitter. Williams doesn't seem too concerned about it affecting offensive production heading into the season.

"The righty-righty matchup doesn't necessarily bother guys," he said. "Because growing up, if you're a right-handed hitter, you see mostly right-handed pitching anyway. And with the current roster we've got, looking back to last year, there's a few guys in our lineup that handle righties very well and have the ability to hit the ball to the opposite gap - Jayson (Werth), Anthony (Rendon), Zim (Ryan Zimmerman), Wilson (Ramos). The guys that face those guys on an everyday basis have the ability to hit the ball the other way. So that matchup isn't quite as important.

"We have to do things right and stay on sliders and things like that. But we do have a little bit of that up-the-middle, other-way type of stroke amongst those guys. So that matchup is not necessarily as important as a lefty-lefty matchup, if you will. Everybody loves to have left-handed bats in your lineup, but we've got those opportunities with the guys we have. And our right-handers handle right-handed pitching just fine anyway."

There are few left-handed bats in camp that could challenge for a roster spot. The two most notables are Mike Carp and Ian Stewart.

Carp was a key member of the Red Sox bench two seasons ago during a run to a World Series championship. While splitting time mostly between left field and first base that year, Carp hit .296 with nine home runs, 43 RBIs and an .885 OPS. However, his production fell of considerably last year when he managed just a .175 batting average with no homers and a .519 OPS over 149 plate appearances split between the Red Sox and Rangers. The 28-year-old has a career .254 batting average, 27 homers and 123 RBIs in 887 at-bats across six seasons with three clubs.

Stewart, a seven-year veteran, owns a .229 lifetime batting average with 68 home runs and 211 RBIs. He's played primarily at third base in his career but also has some experience in the outfield.

Here's a video of a round of righty-righty BP for Espinosa from Sunday's practice:

A look at a round of righty-righty BP for Espinosa. #Nats pic.twitter.com/4ZTfSEEt3F

— Chris Johnson (@masnCJ) March 1, 2015