After learning pitching staff, Wieters now addressing his swing

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Matt Wieters sees the batting average on the scoreboard in right-center field. On Saturday afternoon, it read ".100" and that's hard to ignore.

Wieters also recognizes his top priority in his first month with the Nationals hasn't involved his bat, but rather the connection he has attempted to make with every pitcher he'll be catching throughout the season.

"Getting comfortable with the staff, this spring training, was most important for me," he said. "The swing's coming around. It continues to feel better each day. But I don't think my spring training stats have ever been good throughout my career. I'm looking forward the lights turning on for real."

Perhaps Saturday was the beginning of that process. After going an abysmal 2-for-20 with zero walks to open his spring, Wieters picked up base hits in each of his first two at-bats against the Astros, finishing 2-for-3 on the day and impressing his manager.

"He looked much better," Dusty Baker said. "He's been working. That's the best I've seen him since he's been here. He had some quickness and sharpness in his swing. He had good balance at the plate. He didn't really miss what he swung at, which shows you he's zeroing in to where the sweet part of the bat is. And when you zero in to the sweet part of the bat, then good things happen shortly thereafter."

This has been a challenging spring for Wieters, who not only is trying to get himself ready for his ninth big league season but do so with a new team for the first time in his career. And do so while being two weeks behind everyone else since he signed late.

That's why his first priority has been to develop a good working relationship with the pitching staff, which has to learn a new No. 1 catcher after Wilson Ramos departed for Tampa Bay.

By all accounts, that process has gone well, with Wieters now beginning to feel comfortable catching everyone, and the pitchers beginning to feel comfortable throwing to him.

Now the 30-year-old can start devoting a bit more attention to his swing from both sides of the plate.

"It has been a little bit of a process trying to get the swing going how I want to," he said. "But the good thing is, I'd much rather struggle now than struggle during the regular season. The good thing about struggling is you know what you need to work on. I've constantly had feelings on what I need to improve on, and we've on those in the cage. So the good thing is I've had a lot to work on this spring."

Baker has been batting Wieters eighth most of the time this spring, and if everyone's healthy, that's likely where he'll bat during the season. That will present a challenge in itself to someone who hit fifth, sixth or seventh the vast majority of his time with the Orioles, and isn't used to batting in front of a pitcher.

"Maybe it's something, if that is where I'm hitting, that I'll be able to enjoy," he said. "Because I'll be able to think through the situation. My job in the American League was to just go up there and try and hit home runs every time. I like the National League part, where there's a thinking part to it. It'll just be something I have to adjust to, if that is where I hit."

Truth be told, Wieters isn't so much thinking about personal numbers right now. With the stress of an offseason that lasted much longer than he wanted now behind him, he's looking ahead to what he believes will be an enjoyable season. Not because of what he might accomplish individually, but because of what his team might accomplish collectively.

"At this point in my career - and this is probably what was most attractive about D.C. to me - this is a team that is built with a lot of great talent," he said. "The only thing we need to improve is to go out there and play as a team. At this point in my career, individual goals have kind of been put on the back-burner. I'm on a team that has a chance to win it all, and that's what we're going to work towards. Hopefully we'll have that shot to roll the dice in the playoffs."