After weekend off, Nats will remain in Florida and work out

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals took the field this afternoon knowing this almost certainly was going to be their last Grapefruit League game for a while. What they didn't know was how they were going to pass the time until their next game - whenever that takes place.

Following their 6-3 loss to the Yankees before a sellout crowd of 8,043 at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, the Nationals front office and coaching staff gathered and met for more than an hour to devise a plan.

Here's what they came up with, for now:

* The team will stay in West Palm Beach for the foreseeable future and continue to prepare for the still-undetermined start of the regular season.

* Players will have Friday off to be with their families and make sure off-the-field matters are taken care of. They'll report to the complex Saturday for a team meeting and potential light workout, which most likely will be closed to the media.

* Players will again have Sunday off while the coaching staff meets and formulates a more concrete plan for workouts, scrimmages and other activities designed to keep everyone fresh and ultimately ready to ramp up for the season once Major League Baseball gives them the green light.

"They all agreed that we should stay in spring training," manager Davey Martinez said of his players. "We need to continue to get these guys ready to play. We're going to do the best we can to get them ready, keep them where they're at and then build them up from there."

With no way of knowing at this point when the season will begin - MLB has only said the first two weeks of the regular season are postponed right now - the challenge will be to keep players in mid-spring mode without anyone slipping behind or getting too far ahead.

Though nothing has been formally announced, folks are expecting a shortened regular season, not the full 162 games. If that's the case, games will take on extra importance. And for a team that had to overcome a 19-31 start last year en route to a World Series title, as much preparation as possible now will be paramount to future success.

"We want to make sure, especially with a shortened season, I think the teams that get off to a fairly quick start are going to benefit from this," Martinez said. "I want these guys to understand: When this season starts, we've got to be in, like, June 1 form. Hey, it's go time. And we're going to prepare for that."

Max Scherzer, the team's player rep and one of eight players on the union's executive subcommittee, is trying to find a silver lining to this situation, at least from a baseball standpoint. A Nationals club that was worried about a quick recovery from its long postseason run now has more time to ease into the coming season.

"This is actually going to be probably easier," Scherzer said. "It was harder with the short offseason, trying to plan for how we were going to handle everything in spring, what we wanted to be able to do and accomplish. Now, with the extra two weeks, it kind of gives everybody an extra blow before pressing into work, and it could be a nice little needed rest before we actually start the season."

Fans who bought tickets to future spring training games will get full refunds, the ballpark management unit announced. The Nationals are waiting for an eventual schedule to be released before announcing what happens to any regular season tickets that already have been purchased.

"Until we know when MLB will resume games, we won't be able to make changes in regard to tickets for the postponed games," the club said in a statement. "However, we know that attending the games to which you bought tickets is very important and we will share information with you as soon as we have updates."

Players are just now coming to grips with their new reality for the next several weeks, perhaps months.

"It's going to be strange," left-hander Patrick Corbin, who pitched four scoreless innings today, said before MLB officially announced the suspension of the rest of spring training games. "I don't know it's ever happened before, other than maybe a strike or things like that. It's going to be strange. Guys were ramping up, the season's less than two weeks away. We want to go out there and play games, go up to D.C. and show off the banner, get our rings and all that. It's going to be strange, for us. It's going to be tough. I don't think any of us really know what's coming or how long this is going to last."