Denard Span will play in a minor league game today

Nationals manager Matt Williams liked what he saw yesterday as he leaned on the back of the cage at Steinbrenner Field and watched center fielder Denard Span participate in a full batting practice session. Today, Span will see his first live action since March 9 core muscle surgery when he plays in a minor league game in Viera, Fla.

"He felt good," Williams said of Span. "The plan for him is to play today. So he'll get in the game down there, assuming that he's shows up and feels well. Three innings and a couple at-bats maybe. It's a little similar to Jayson's (Werth) program, more tracking initially, but we want to get him on his feet and get him up playing in an actual game and have him react."

Williams is encouraged by the progress Span has made since the surgery. The original diagnosis was for four to eight weeks weeks of recovery and rehab.

"It's a good schedule," said Williams. "It's an aggressive schedule. Yesterday he did everything that anybody would normally do in a live BP type session, pregame session. So he took his pregame work. He shagged balls live off the bat yesterday. Took a full round of batting practice. He was a little tired, but that's to be expected. He feels good about it."

Span indicated after the surgery that he felt the abdominal discomfort before showing up for spring training, but thought he could play through it. In the Nationals' first Grapefruit League game, Span was in his normal leadoff spot. But the 31-year-old experienced pain immediately after making his move out of the box to run to first base. That would be the last spring game Span would play, with the procedure performed four days later.

"The issue with Denard is that he always couldn't get going," said Williams. "Early on, even when he hadn't had the surgery yet, he was still taking full BP. That motion didn't bother him too much. It was the running. Playing the position he plays, it's important for him to be able to go get it when he needs to go get it."

Just like Span, Werth has stayed behind in Florida to continue his workload in minor league games. Williams has been encouraged with Werth's ability to play in back-to-back games the past few days - so much so that he's not ruling out his availability to play left field for the Nats in games next week.

"It's possible," said Williams. "It's possible that he'd be back and playing. I think his legs are OK, his throwing is fine. It's a question of him getting at-bats and getting timing. He maybe just a touch off still. But, yeah, for the first week, there's a possibility of that, barring any kind of setback, of course."

As he enters his second season as Nats manager, Williams is no stranger to dealing with injuries. Last year, he scrambled to fill the voids left by starters Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper and Wilson Ramos, all of whom missed more than 50 games. The result was 96 wins, a National League East title and a Manager of the Year award for Williams. So there's no panic for Williams as he enters the season with potentially five players on the disabled list: third baseman Anthony Rendon (sprained left MCL), outfielder Nate McLouth (shoulder surgery), right-handec reliever Casey Janssen (shoulder tendinitis), Werth and Span.

"It just gives us experience - the wrong experience," said Williams. "We don't want that. But it shows us that we can compete, that we can go out and win a game regardless of who's in the lineup. You certainly want to have all your guys. That's important. But if you don't have them, our attitude is, 'OK, well then we gotta go win the game. Those guys aren't playing today but we still have to win.' That's what we're paid to do."