Injured Nats rehabbing in West Palm Beach as season opens

As their teammates prepare to take over the first base line at Nationals Park and be introduced before the opening night crowd, the six players who are opening the season on the injured list find themselves in Florida, left to prepare for their eventual 2022 debuts from afar.

Stephen Strasburg, Will Harris, Ehire Adrianza, Joe Ross, Carter Kieboom and Seth Romero are still in West Palm Beach, each of them at different stages of their rehab programs.

Adrianza should be closest to rejoining the Nationals. The utility infielder was placed on the 10-day IL this morning with a strained left quad, which he suffered one week ago running down the baseline in Port St. Lucie.

Despite some initial hope he’d be able to recover in time to make the roster, Adrianza was still limping several days later, so the Nationals decided not to push it. To date, he hasn’t been cleared to start running again, and that will be the biggest hurdle he’ll need to overcome before he can return.

“He’s doing a lot of strengthening stuff right now. He’s hasn’t been able to run yet,” manager Davey Martinez said. “The next step for him will be to start running, and we haven’t been able to get him to run yet.”

Strasburg, still building his arm back up from last summer’s thoracic outlet surgery, also was placed on the 10-day IL. The fact the Nationals didn’t put him on the 60-day IL suggests they still believe he could make his season debut prior to early June. Martinez said this spring he hopes the right-hander will make 20-25 starts with no interruptions, which would push his debut until at least sometime in May.

Harris, however, did go on the 60-day IL after having a follow-up procedure last week to remove scar tissue near his right armpit, the byproduct of his own thoracic outlet surgery last year.

Also on the 60-day IL are:

* Kieboom, who has a flexor mass strain in his right forearm and a sprained elbow ligament. The third baseman has yet to be cleared to start throwing again.

* Ross, who had surgery to remove a bone spur in his elbow March 7. The right-hander has resumed throwing and when camp ended was throwing on flat ground from 90 feet.

* Romero, who suffered a left calf strain early in spring training. The left-hander wasn’t in contention for a spot on the opening day roster, but now that he’s out until at least June, he’ll face even longer odds of making his case for a midseason call-up.