Updates on Jayson Werth, Denard Span and Anthony Rendon

The Nationals open today against the New York Mets without three important players on offense. Left fielder Jayson Werth (right AC joint surgery), center fielder Denard Span (right core muscle surgery) and third baseman Anthony Rendon (sprained left knee) were placed on the disabled list to begin the season. The earliest they are eligible to return is April 11.

Manager Matt Williams, who sounded like he was battling a little bit of a cold himself, spoke about each player's current status during his pregame media session, saying Werth and Span are with the team at Nationals Park today.

"Jayson's here, Denard is here," Williams said. "Jayson has been playing in games, getting live at-bats.

"Denard will start getting live at-bats. He's been in games. Played a little bit of defense from a minor league perspective in minor leagues games. He'll start getting live at-bats. We'll run him through some of stuff in the next couple days. We have this lull between today and the ninth when the minor league season starts, so we have them here and we'll work them out for the next three days and send them out for rehab assignments."

Williams believes Werth might return first.

"I think Jayson's probably the closest, but Denard is going through a full workout and playing in those minor league games," Williams said. "It's a little bit spring training-esque for him right now, where we'll get him three innings we'll get him to five innings and then get him out on a rehab assignment to build up and start playing in games. Jayson's closer. Anthony's probably the furthest away, but that can change this week. If he starts feeling good, then we can start ramping him up and getting him going as well."

Werth is getting into multiple minor league games in Florida to test his shoulder.

"He played four games in a row with no issues, got multiple at-bats, played up to seven innings, with six at-bats in that game (in Florida)," Williams said. "He had planned on playing again yesterday. It was an early game in Viera, it was a 9 o'clock game, so he decided not to play in that one. He'll get today a full workout, full BP, then tomorrow and Wednesday, as well."

Werth feels pretty good about how his rehab is going.

"We're coming along," he said. "It's definitely progressing. I've been playing in the minor leagues down there. I wanted to play, I wanted to be here today. I just got a couple more hurdles to cross before I'm ready to go."

And his timing at the plate could also use more at-bats.

"OK. Not great. Not great," Werth said. "Those things are kind of like one day you wake up and you've got it. We're not there yet."

Span also spoke about his recovery, saying he is being careful, too.

"I feel pretty good," Span said. "Early in camp, I felt good swinging, I felt good throwing. It was just when I tried to accelerate and kick it into another gear. I didn't have that and it was something that I started feeling towards the end of last year with the other side. The last couple of weeks that I've been doing my drills and sprinting, I'm feeling that extra gear, so that's a good thing."

Span played defense yesterday, but says he is still a bit away from hitting. Will he return soon?

"Still kind of hard to say," Span said. "I feel good, but spring training is starting for me right now. I gotta get my at-bats, I gotta get my timing and get a feel for the speed of the game. All those things. I don't know, usually regular spring training is about three weeks long worth of games, so if everything goes well that's what I'm saying. But we have to see what the trainers and skip and Mike (Rizzo) and all those guys say.

"I'm just not ready to hit. I can hit, I've been swinging in the cage and I've been swinging in BP. But I didn't want to get thrown into the fire without getting some reps. I gotta catch up on reps in the cage and make sure my swing is good. Guys don't just show up on the first day of spring training and start hitting sliders and changeups. I kind of need to get back in that shape and iron out some of the kinks with my swing."

The timeframe is a little bit longer for Rendon, as the Nationals want to be very careful about moving his knee along.

"Anthony, of course, is week-to-week," Williams said. "He's doing exercises, he's doing the things he needs to do, but that injury does take some time to heal."