Martinez says his lineup goal is to maximize health

With a new manager and a new philosophy come the inevitable questions of how Davey Martinez will construct the lineup of a Nationals club that has won its division two years in a row.

Last season, many second-guessed then-skipper Dusty Baker about where he put Anthony Rendon in his lineup. Why was Rendon hitting so low in the lineup when he could consistently put the ball in play? Wouldn't you want one of your best hitters to get as many at-bats as possible per game?

Martinez showed a few wrinkles in his lineup construction during spring training that appeared similar to his work with Cubs manager Joe Maddon: namely batting the starting pitcher eighth instead of in the more common nine hole.

But before Martinez would let anyone believe that there was some magical way to move the chess pieces of a very good team around the board that would maximize wins, he laid one very important point down about lineups: his goal is to make certain those nine players that are available March 29 can go all the way through to Sept. 30.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Martinez said. "If we are winning and everybody is good .... The biggest thing for me is keeping these guys healthy. It's 162 games."

And that is truly the bottom line for this team. Adam Eaton missed most of last season with a major knee injury. A hyperextended knee limited Bryce Harper to 111 games. Trea Turner's broken wrist kept him to just 98 games in 2017. Daniel Murphy will begin this season on the disabled list. Ryan Zimmerman played one spring training game.

"If we deem we need a day off for somebody, regardless of whether we (are) winning seven, eight, nine games in a row, they are going to get the day off," Martinez said. "If you look at the guys we have ... we have guys that are role players that can play every day for anybody else. I'm excited about being able to have these guys and being able to utilize them not just as a pinch-hitter but get them consistent at-bats."

But back to the pitcher batting eighth, or even leading off Harper. Martinez said he could mix things up based on personnel and opponent strengths.

"We are going to do some different things," Martinez said. "That's all I'm going to tell you. Based on information and based on how we feel, we are going to construct lineups accordingly.

"It's fair to say that we will look into everything and figure out what the best lineup is for that particular day. There will be changes. I wouldn't read much into the lineup today, but who knows, that might be the lineup for Thursday. I don't know yet, we will see when we get there."

And to that end, Martinez has Eaton leading off in Tuesday's final exhibition game. Rendon is batting second and Harper third. Turner is batting sixth, Michael A. Taylor eighth and Miguel Montero ninth.

And what about Rendon hitting at the top of the order, or hitting sixth?

Maddon and his Cubs certainly would not worry about tweaking things in their lineup, like batting Kris Bryant second. Martinez said he's not going to go all "mad scientist" with this lineup to begin the season because he knows this is a very good Nats team. You can't do too much to mess it up. But still, he would like to maximize his return with such potent bats.

"A lot of it is common sense really, what happens and what we do," Martinez said of his lineup tweaks. "Some of this stuff is based on information that I know about our players and opponents and how we feel we need to proceed in a game. Every game is different. We take the information and we use it wisely.

"With that being said, a big component is the human factor. And I do believe in that. And knowing when guys need rest, knowing when guys are mentally struggling, stuff like that. That's also, for me, huge in constructing lineups for different days."

Martinez was also asked about carrying only four bullpen arms to go with the final three "closing" arms: Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle. Why would he not add that fifth bench player?

"Well, for me it's about not beating up the bullpen early," Martinez said. "If you look at our lineup, there aren't many guys that you are going to pinch hit for, so having an extra arm in the bullpen made sense to all of us. It's something that we collaborated with, top to bottom. I like to have an extra arm, especially early in the season.

"Remember, opening day is only one day. Things change in the course of a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever. But right now we like the way we constructed our team."

Of course, the club will be able to retain one more bench player for the start of the season when Murphy begins the season on the disabled list.