Lineup talk, and a new outfield drill on final workout day

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Nationals open exhibition play Saturday, which means we’ll see the very first version of Davey Martinez’s 2023 lineup in action.

Don’t pay too much attention to the names in that lineup, though, or where they’re lined up.

Martinez said he plans to use these early Grapefruit League games as an opportunity to get certain players as many at-bats as possible before they depart. That’s why CJ Abrams will lead off Saturday against the Cardinals, with Luis García second and Joey Meneses third.

That’s not Martinez’s lineup plan for Opening Day, at least not at this point. He believes both Abrams and García could become top-of-the-order hitters in time, but that time isn’t yet. He wants to make sure both get comfortable with swing and approach changes they’ve been working on before moving up in the lineup.

“For me, it’s tricky,” Martinez said. “I don’t want to put them in a situation right away where they feel like they’ve got to get on base, they’ve got to rush. I might just let them hit at the bottom of the order first until they get going, and then we’ll see what happens.”

The Nationals already did this to an extent last season with Abrams, who joined the club in mid-August and mostly hit seventh, eighth or even ninth until he was finally moved up to the No. 2 spot in late-September.

Martinez said it’s possible Abrams could work his way up with a really strong spring, especially if he shows the patience to start drawing walks. But he won’t force that issue before the 22-year-old shows he’s ready.

Who does that leave at the top of the lineup? Lane Thomas appears to set to retain his leadoff job.

“Lane’s done such a good job for us leading off, and I think he’s going to continue to do a good job,” Martinez said. “I don’t really want to mess with him. I like him up there. He could easily put us up 1-0 fairly quick.”

Things get much less certain after that. Meneses could bat second, but this lineup may not be deep enough to afford that luxury. That would seem to leave new third baseman Jeimer Candelario, who had a .356 on-base percentage for the Tigers in 2020-21 before plummeting to .272 last year, as one of the only remaining candidates.

* The final pre-exhibition season workout of the spring featured a newfangled drill for outfielders. First base coach Eric Young Jr. would fire multiple baseballs out of a machine, leaving a group of three players to try to catch them all. Those players had to begin on their stomachs, facing away from the machine, then hop to their feet and locate the flyballs in the air before they landed.

It made for a few comical moments, and plenty of banter (some might call it trash-talking) among the outfielders. It also underscored an important lesson: Communication is critical, both before every pitch and after the ball is put into play.

“You’re communicating before the balls get shot: ‘Who’s going deep? Who’s coming in? Who’s got the middle ball?’” Lane Thomas said. “And then after that, it’s: ‘I got this one! You got that one!’ We’re all talking. It’s a good communication drill. Shoot, sometimes you can lose the ball in the sky, and you have to do that stuff in real life. It makes it way harder with eight balls coming at you.”

Yes, eight. Young started the drill with only three balls flying into the sky at once, but gradually built up the volume until there were eight at once. Two teams (Thomas-Victor Robles-Stone Garrett and Alex Call-Yadiel Hernandez-Derek Hill) managed to catch all eight balls without anything falling to the ground. There was some dispute between those two teams about the winner of the entire exercise.

“We have a lot of fun together,” Call said. “We have a really good group of guys. So when you add a little bit of fun to it, give some competition, we were smack-talking each other and having a good time. But it was also good work. We were getting our communication in. We’re talking pre-pitch, and we’re talking during the play. Then we’re testing the environment to make it a little tough.

“So, credit to EY for coming up with something like that. I haven’t seen that one before.”

* Prospects already in town for early minor league camp were given another opportunity to join the big leaguers for a brief while this morning. Some took live batting practice off Kyle Finnegan. Others served as baserunners for defensive drills, including a rundown exercise.

Martinez again was in awe of the physical size of these young players.

“We have some big guys,” the manager said.” I’m going to have to grow 2 inches or something, because I’m getting tired of looking up. These guys are getting bigger and bigger every year.”