Baker's message before first full-squad workout: "It's going to be tougher"

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The first full-squad workout of spring training is old hat for Nationals manager Dusty Baker.

Baker doesn't feel it's necessary to see every player each day. So if he missed Bryce Harper taking batting practice - or the barbed wire-wrapped baseball bat sent to him by the folks at "The Walking Dead" that the slugger toted to the practice field this morning - he will have plenty more days to watch Harper terrorize pitchers with more traditional lumber.

Nor does Baker feel it's essential to deliver some kind of prolific start-of-spring speech to his charges. He's entering his 22nd year at the helm of a major league team and, quite frankly, doesn't feel like he should have to motivate his players. Three exits in the first round of the playoffs in a five-year span - with a couple of subpar years in between the playoff seasons - should be motivation enough.

"I don't really have a message," Baker said. "I talked from my heart about last year and about what may come. And if there was a message, it was probably the fact that this team has been on an every-other-year program and it was brought to my attention. I didn't know that, that the team's done well every other year. And so we'd like to have consecutive years because the good teams I've been on, we've been in the playoffs three, four years in a row, or four out of five. Whatever it is. So that's our message. It's going to be tougher. The teams are more balanced in our division. We may have one of the toughest divisions in baseball, so we have to stay healthy and stay together."

Baker likes to draw on what some of sport's greatest competitors have told him. It's less about name-dropping in front of his club and more about giving them sage wisdom from guys who have conquered the mountaintop. In today's pre-workout chat, Baker relayed the words of former Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, who cited team unity as ex-Celtics coach Red Auerbach's key mantra.

"(Russell) said the team, they loved each other," Baker recalled. "That was kind of strange coming from big, mean-looking Bill Russell. To have him say that means a lot. So that's what I told my guys."

One topic not discussed with the Nationals players and staff was Baker's future with the club. Though his team won the National League East and reached the playoffs in his first season in D.C., Baker is now entering the final year of a two-year, $4 million contract.

Baker sounds like a guy who feels like he wants to manage for a few more years, but he doesn't want that to be something in the back of his players' minds. He's confident something will be worked out that will keep him in Washington.

"The guys, I just want them to focus on what they have to do," Baker said. "Don't worry about me because Dusty's fine. So, I mean, everybody likes security. Everybody likes to know what their future is gonna be even though it doesn't amount to much. But I'm very confident that we'd get things worked out. You'd like to do it sooner rather than later because I don't want to be a distraction to my team. I'm a team man, always been a team man. The team's No 1. And if you do the job, I see my importance in the organization has grown since I've been here. That's worth something. And as much as we're a young organization, I've been around a while. Everybody comes to my office, from the trainers to the PR department to the media department to the community relations department. I feel like I'm helping out on all fronts. Sometimes you can make yourself valuable so you're not that easily disposed."