Summer training begins today at Nationals Park

It's been 114 days since the Nationals last took the field in any kind of formal capacity. On that warm March afternoon in West Palm Beach, they faced the Yankees in an exhibition game played as the entire country was beginning to shut down due to the still-mysterious novel coronavirus. When Major League Baseball announced it was suspending operations, little could anyone have known how much time would pass before they'd gather again on a ballfield.

Today, it finally happens. Not in West Palm Beach, but at Nationals Park, which like every other MLB home ballpark will be hosting a three-week summer training camp to set the stage for a 60-game sprint of a regular season organizers desperately hope can be completed without interruption or serious illness.

The virus is still wreaking havoc around the country, though more so at the moment in Sun Belt states like Florida, Arizona and Texas than here on the East Coast, where it peaked more than a month ago and so far hasn't returned in a second wave.

But the situation the Nationals will face is far from 100 percent safe and secure. Players, coaches, trainers and everyone else permitted inside the ballpark will have to adhere to strict protocols that will fundamentally change the way teams conduct workouts. The ability to adhere to these unprecedented standards and prevent an outbreak from occurring may prove just as vital to a team's success as on-field performance.

What will be taking place today on South Capitol Street? A series of small groups working out on the field, in the bullpens and in the batting cages. Fifty-eight players in total are believed to be participating either here or at the club's alternate training site in Fredericksburg - Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross are the only known opt-outs at this point - but there won't be anywhere close to that many players on site at the same time for now.

The workouts will mostly be fundamental drills during this first portion of camp. Pitchers' fielding practice. Infield defense. Batting practice. Players have been working out on their own over since the shutdown, so they are expected to report ready for more advanced drills than they normally would on the first day of spring training. But they're not going to be in game shape yet.

We'll learn more about the plan for this camp later this afternoon when both general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez hold video press conferences. This will become the norm for this entire 2020 season; all interviews will be done virtually, not face-to-face.

Reporters will be permitted to watch the workouts in person, with a maximum of 35 media members spaced out in the press box and under strict orders to wear masks and practice social distancing.

It won't look like anything we've seen before. And there's no way to know how exactly this all will play out. We can hope everything runs smoothly and problems don't arise. But we also would be kidding ourselves if we didn't acknowledge there are countless opportunities for something to go wrong. If and when that does happen, it'll be up to MLB to decide how to proceed.

For now, we'll remain cautiously optimistic. Baseball is back. And though it won't look like the baseball we saw 114 days ago, it's the first step toward a return to normalcy after an unprecedented hiatus that has fundamentally changed the sport and the world at large.