Updates on Wood, Cavalli, Thompson and Sims

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A bunch of guys are going to play for the Nationals today in their Grapefruit League opener against the Astros. But not everyone.

Some prominent regulars are being held back and are expected to debut Sunday against the Mets, including CJ Abrams, Luis García Jr. and Nathaniel Lowe. That’s the routine in late February, when hardly anyone plays in back-to-back games.

Then there are those players who aren’t ready to take the field for game action quite yet. And there are some significant names on that list.

Most notable is James Wood, who has been dealing with right quad tendinitis. The 22-year-old outfielder continues to take batting practice, and on Friday he was cleared to begin light running. But there doesn’t appear to be a rush to get him into games just yet.

“He’s been hitting. He’s starting to a run a little bit,” manager Davey Martinez said. “But we’re kind of going to slow play this a little bit and try to nip this in the bud.”

The Nats are also slow-playing Cade Cavalli, who is now nearly two years removed from Tommy John surgery. The 2020 first-round pick has been throwing off a mound (three bullpen sessions so far this spring) but Martinez confirmed today he will not be pitching in any spring training games.

Given how much time he has missed, Cavalli is on a tight innings limit this season. The Nationals would prefer those innings come much later, which means they have no choice but to hold him back now even though by all accounts his arm is healthy.

“The whole thing is to get him to finish the season with us,” Martinez said. “He’s going to be limited in innings, but we want him to finish the season so he can have a regular offseason and then following that, he’s ready to go. No restrictions next year.”

Mason Thompson also won’t be pitching in any games for a while. Thompson, one year removed from the second Tommy John surgery of his career, was recently placed on the 60-day injured list. That makes him ineligible to pitch in the major leagues until the final week of May.

“We really felt giving him extra time to build up is definitely going to help him,” Martinez said. “He’s another guy that we’re going to control how many innings (he can throw). We’d rather him finish the season healthy than push him here and have to shut him down.”

The timeline isn’t nearly that delayed for the newest member of the Nationals bullpen: Lucas Sims, who signed a $3 million deal earlier this week. The veteran right-hander is scheduled to throw live batting practice Sunday for the first time since joining the club.

If all goes well, Sims shouldn’t need much time to catch up to everyone else on the staff.