Castro easing back in from restricted list, plus injury updates

The Nationals started the weekend by making a flurry of roster moves ahead of their four-game series against the Mets on Friday. Manager Davey Martinez clarified the statuses of some players while providing other updates on some injured high-profile starting pitchers before tonight's opener.

First, the roster moves:

* Starlin Castro was returned from the restricted list
* Austin Voth was reinstated from the 10-day injured list
* Andrew Stevenson was placed on the 10-day IL (retroactive to June 17) with an oblique strain
* Ryne Harper was optioned to Triple-A Rochester
* Rogelio Armenteros cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Rochester

Castro's return headlined the news after he was placed on the restricted list Wednesday while handling "some family matters that he needs to attend to," according to Martinez. Castro hasn't played since going 0-for-4 in Monday's series-opening win over the Pirates and he remains out of the starting lineup tonight even after being reinstated.

"Starlin got back this morning, I talked to him on the phone," Martinez said during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He got reinstated and he feels good. I wanted to give him a day to get back into that baseball mentality. Take some ground balls, take some BP, and he'll be available off the bench for us today and he'll play tomorrow. But he's back. We didn't talk much about anything else but the fact that he's back and he's ready to go."

Even though Castro is available off the bench tonight and is scheduled to play in tomorrow's doubleheader, Martinez still wants to keep an eye on his third baseman to see how he's doing mentally before throwing him back into a game situation.

"I'm going to keep an eye on him today and watch him and see how he's doing, especially mentally," said Martinez. "And I'm sure I'll have another conversation with him sometime today just to see how he's doing."

Voth's return from the injured list is good news for the right-hander and the Nationals bullpen after he broke his nose by taking a pitch to the face on June 6 in Philadelphia. Martinez has said Voth will be used exclusively out of the bullpen for the time being, so he won't have to worry about stepping back in the batter's box. His arm could be called upon at some point this weekend with at least 32 innings needed to be covered over the next three days.

As for Stevenson, he injured his oblique during his brief appearance in Wednesday's finale against the Pirates and will require at least the full 10 days to recover, with the possibility of an extended stint.

"He felt it on his pinch-hit, on his swing," Martinez said of Stevenson's injury. "So he got an MRI and he has a right oblique strain. Those injuries are tough. He's on the IL, he's going to get 10 days for sure and then we'll re-evaluate after that."

And although Harper was technically optioned to Rochester, he was out on the field at Nationals Park this afternoon for pregame warm-ups, so he figures to be Martinez's 27th man for tomorrow's twinbill.

Also spotted in the Nationals Park outfield this afternoon were Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. Both right-handers are currently on the injured list, so seeing them participate in baseball activities was a good sign.

Scherzer, placed on the IL on Tuesday (retroactive to June 10) with groin inflammation, was playing catch in right field before briefly throwing in the Nationals bullpen.

"He threw a little bit today, he ran, he says he feels good," Martinez said of Scherzer. "He's going to throw a bullpen tomorrow and we'll see how he feels after his bullpen."

Apparently Scherzer did not throw enough for today to count as an official bullpen session.

"Yeah, that's part of just his throwing program," Martinez said. "He'll throw off the mound. Like I said, he'll throw a normal bullpen tomorrow and we'll see how it goes."

Strasburg returning to the outfield to throw again after a light session on Wednesday, a good sign for the right-hander, but still not a definite indicator that his return is imminent. He's still seeing a specialist for the nerve irritation in his neck that has sidelined him since June 2.

"He threw again today at 75 feet," Martinez said. "He probably threw a lot more than he did the other day. We'll see how he feels. Yeah, he's going to continue to go see (the specialist) to make sure the inflammation has completely gone down. So once that happens and once he starts feeling better and better, we'll try to get him on the mound. But for right now, we gotta build him back up, gotta build his strength up, gotta build his arm back up. So we'll continue to do that and we'll see how he feels after he threw today."

As Strasburg continues to build strength, the Nats also need to make sure the neck irritation continues to dissipate.

"It was a nerve irritation and we just needed to get it to calm down," Martinez said.