Martinez trying to plan for various spring training scenarios

Davey Martinez's days are pretty occupied right now, all things considered. As he waits things out at his 350-acre farm near Nashville, he spends his mornings riding a Peloton bike, his afternoons outside taking care of his massive property and in between chases his new puppies Champ and Mya around.

There is some time reserved for Martinez's actual day job, though, and right now what occupies the Nationals manager's worktime most is formulating a plan for an eventual second round of spring training.

Martinez, like everyone else, has no idea when this will happen, where it will happen or even if it will happen. But he chooses to remain optimistic about the possibilities, and so he is trying to put together a plan for his coaches and players that can be implemented quickly once Major League Baseball gives the green light to proceed.

"What I do try to do every day is tell myself that we will have baseball. Baseball is going to come back," Martinez said today during a video conference with reporters. "Any specific date, we don't know that. But I'm trying to put together what I think spring training would look like right now. I'm just trying to get to spring training."

Thing is, there's no way to know yet where a theoretical spring training would be held. It could be at the usual facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. It could be at a joint complex with another team in Arizona. It could even be right here in town at Nationals Park if league, government and health officials determine it's safe.

The local idea, while exciting in some respects, would present a major logistical challenge: Teams usually use multiple practice fields during spring training, as many as six at a time, plus an oversized bullpen with four or five pitchers throwing at once. At Nationals Park, the team would be confined to one field and two bullpens (with two mounds a piece).

If that plan becomes reality, Martinez said it's possible they'd have to break up the roster into segments (starting pitchers, relievers, position players) and have each take the field at different times of the day.

"We talk about isolation and no more than 10 people gathering at one place," he said. "With only one field, we may have to separate and make groups."

If there are scrimmages, players would possibly have to spread themselves out among both dugouts and maybe even sit in the stands.

Those are minor logistical challenges, and truth be told, Martinez doesn't give them much thought at this point. His greatest concern is figuring out how to properly get everyone ready in a compressed timeframe. There won't be a typical, six-week camp. This one probably will be half as long.

Martinez said he has mapped out a potential workout schedule for a two-week camp, a three-week camp and a four-week camp. As always, the most important group to monitor will be the pitching staff, especially starters.

Though everyone continues to throw on their own at home during the hiatus - some have even purchased their own synthetic pitching mounds and installed them in their yards - there's only so much guys can do without facing hitters in something resembling an actual game. So it will be a challenge to safely build everyone's arms up in short order without risking injury.

"We're just going to have to see where they're at when they come in," Martinez said. "Obviously if you talk to Max (Scherzer), he'll be ready to pitch 7-8 innings. But you've got to be very careful. Regardless of if (the season is) 80 games, 100 games, whatever we're going to play, they've still got to prepare themselves to go out every five games. We've got to be real careful."