For Martinez, new season is about "opportunity"

With the official start of spring training yesterday, as Nationals pitchers and catchers reported to West Palm Beach and had their first workout on the back fields of The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, come the traditional pleasantries of a new season.

How was your offseason? What are you working on this spring? What are your goals for the season?

Aside from announcing the news of Stephen Strasburg’s setback, manager Davey Martinez answered most of these questions with an enthusiastic energy yesterday during his first meeting with the media members who are in Florida, while others, myself included, tuned in over Zoom.

“It was really good,” Martinez said after Day 1 of camp. “For me, honestly, it feels like Day 25 because a lot of guys have been here early. Very enthusiastic. Their work ethic has been really, really good for a few weeks, even though today was Day 1. Seeing everybody together, getting everybody in The Circle of Trust, talking to them guys, a lot of energy today, which was awesome. It was a lot of fun. Getting to meet the new guys and talk to them face-to-face was pretty awesome as well.”

Martinez was also very clear about his theme for this spring and the upcoming season: opportunity.

The Nationals have 67 players starting in major league camp this spring: Everyone on the 40-man roster and 27 non-roster invitees. It’s a mix of returning players and newcomers, youngsters and veterans.

The returning young names to keep an eye out for include MacKenzie Gore, Cade Cavalli, Josiah Gray, Keibert Ruiz, CJ Abrams and Luis García. Some young newcomers include Thad Ward, Jeter Downs and Stone Garrett.

You should be familiar with returning veterans Patrick Corbin, Carl Edwards Jr., Kyle Finnegan, Sean Doolittle (non-roster invitee), Ildemaro Vargas and Victor Robles. And the new veterans include Trevor Williams, Dominic Smith, Jeimer Candelario and Corey Dickerson.

Whoever they are or how they got there, they all have an opportunity to not only make this team, but also advance their careers.

“This year, it really is about opportunity.” Martinez said. “We got a lot of guys, young guys, who are going to get an opportunity. Veteran guys that we brought in that we thought could fit that are going to get an opportunity to play every day. So this spring training, as I mentioned, it’s about opportunity for these guys to come out here and get an opportunity to better their careers, to help the Washington Nationals win. So I’m really looking forward to that.”

How the 2023 Nationals shake out will be determined by the competition created by these opportunities. Which young players will step up and take advantage? Which veterans will revitalize their careers?

The core group of this team is “pretty interesting,” according to Martinez. It could be made of a mixed bag of returning players and newcomers, youngsters and veterans, by the end of camp.

Let the opportunities, and competition, begin.

“We got some really good young athletes,” Martinez said. “We got guys that we have here for the first time. The younger guys get a full spring training and then a full year. So that, to me, is exciting. Hopefully, they learned a lot last year and they can build off of that, and we get them going, and get them going right from the beginning of the season.”