Soto sits again, Rainey throws again, cabbage races again

Juan Soto reported to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches this morning, feeling better after spending Wednesday at home with what was believed to be a sinus issue, and wanted to play in the Nationals' exhibition game against the Marlins.

And Davey Martinez initially put Soto in his lineup. He was batting second, behind Victor Robles and ahead of Trea Turner in the latest attempt by the manager to see if that new-look trio atop the order could work.

Then Martinez thought better of it. Soto was scratched from the lineup and told to take it easy today and just work out at the complex.

"I decided not to play him, just give him a camp day," Martinez explained during his pregame Zoom session with reporters. "He's been sick for a couple days. I just want to make sure he's OK. We want to get some fluids in him today and let him go through his routine and then see how he feels and get him back in there soon. It was just me being cautious."

Soto hasn't played since Monday, a game in which he fouled a ball off his ear but emerged fine. He felt ill the next two days, though, and on Wednesday the club sent him home, following protocols that require any player or staffer who doesn't feel well to stay away from the ballpark.

But before anyone panics, Soto appears to be fine. He tested negative for COVID-19, according to Martinez. And he's working out with teammates today on the back fields outside the stadium.

"He got, I think, a little bit of a sinus thing going on," Martinez said. "He tested, everything came back negative. He's going to work out today and then we'll see how he feels."

The Nationals, who have not had a player or staffer test positive for COVID-19 so far this spring, are off Friday before hosting the Mets on Saturday evening. That would appear to be the target to get Soto back in the lineup.

* Tanner Rainey continues to work his way back from a muscle strain near his right collarbone: The reliever was due to throw 30 pitches off a mound today.

It's the second time Rainey has thrown a bullpen session since he was briefly shut down upon reporting the muscle strain. He has yet to pitch in a Grapefruit League game, and though there is no official timeline for him to do so, the sense remains there's still enough time for him to get prepared to open the season in the Nationals bullpen.

"I'm not going to put a timeline on it," Martinez said. "My big concern is he wants to throw with a bit more intensity today. So we'll see how it goes."

* Several of the Nationals' top pitching prospects appeared in Wednesday's B game, a 1-0 victory over the Cardinals. Included in that group was Cade Cavalli, the 2020 first-round pick who reached a notable digit on the radar gun: His fastball topped out at 99 mph.

Eye-popping as that is, the coaching staff is also trying to teach the young right-hander how to know when to dial it up that high and when to bring it down a notch or two for his own long-term benefit.

"He's got tons of energy, and he gets fired up on that mound," Martinez said. "What we tell him is: 'You've got to hone in that energy and use it as a positive.' Sometimes when he's doing his work, he tones it down a little bit, probably to 75 percent. 'Cause when the games start, your adrenaline gets you to where you need to be."

* Despite the protocols and limitations of this camp, the Nationals are still finding ways to create the kind of fun Martinez has been preaching since he became manager in 2018.

The daily Circle of Trust morning meeting can't be as compact and all-encompassing as it has been in previous years, but they're still holding sessions with players spaced out or broken into multiple groups.

"That's tough for me, because I like to get these guys together to talk about different things," Martinez said. "We like to have fun in the circle, and it's open for anybody to speak. And sometimes it's pretty cool to hear the players speak their minds in front of everybody. So in that regard it's kind of tough. But we're trying really hard to have some kind of normalcy here. We're having a lot of fun."

They even managed to hold the now-annual cabbage relay race that was such a hit in previous springs. Instead of handing the cabbage to a teammate standing directly next to you, players tossed it a few feet to create some social distancing. Most notably, though, was the result of the recent race: For the first time, Team Strasburg defeated Team Scherzer.

And how did Max take his rare loss?

"Not well," Martinez said with a laugh.