Turner on returning to short, Murphy on his new double play partner

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Nationals will have a new double play combination this season, with Trea Turner moving from center field to shortstop to team with second baseman Daniel Murphy. Murphy is as eager to play alongside Turner, who returns to his natural position.

"Trea and I will do some work together," Murphy said Friday as position players reported to Nationals camp at The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. "We worked together already. We worked together last spring training early. And then we came up in the season, we would take ground balls as well, too. We're not foreign to each other. All the times I've seen him play shortstop, he's very consistent. So I don't the learning curve is going to be that great. We should hopefully fall into rhythm fairly quickly. I'm excited to see what he can do there. He was special to watch in center field, so I'm excited to see what he does at another premium position in the field."

Even after he morphed surprisingly quickly into a competent center fielder during the stretch run last season, Turner made time to get reps at shortstop. And when shortstop Danny Espinosa was shipped off to the Angels in December, Turner had his old position back. And almost as soon as that happened, he reacquainted himself with a simplistic notion that is his shortstop foundation: completing the play.

"Catch the ball, throw the ball and make sure the first baseman catches it," Turner said. "If I'm a little slower and the guy beats the ball out, I still completed it and I go from there. I need to speed it up a little bit, but I gave myself a shot and gave my team a shot and that's something I learned in college: Catch the ball throw the ball and complete the play. And guys do it differently and I'll probably do it differently - I don't care how it looks as long as he's out. Just work on it, continue to get better, lean on some guys that have done it a lot more than I have like Stephen Drew, Manny (Burriss) and some of those guys and kind of pick their brains."

More than anything, last season proved to Turner that he belonged in the majors. The only difference between playing shortstop in the minor leagues and majors will be an extra deck on the stadium and a little more pressure. But Turner's not the kind of guy who exacts any extra pressure on himself.

If he were, he'd be wondering - like most of those following the Nationals - where he's hitting in the lineup come April. Convention dictates that a good on-base guy with speed to burn leads off, but the Nats acquired fleet-footed Adam Eaton to play center field and his presence gives Dusty Baker a big decision at the top of the batting order.

Asked if he had a preference, Turner said, "No. I think I would like to lead off just because it's comforting. It's something I've done for a long time. I hit second in college. I hit second in the minor leagues when I was with the Padres. Either's fine with me. I just want to score some runs."

Speaking to the media on Friday, Baker off-handedly remarked about how it would be when Turner leads off. But a few minutes later, he was backtracking and debating the merits of potentially hitting three left-handed hitters - Eaton, Murphy and right fielder Bryce Harper - in a row if Turner was atop the lineup. When someone asked if he'd think about letting Eaton energize the offense from the six-hole, Baker said he'd consider it.

There's still plenty of time to debate lineup permutations, and it's not out of the realm to expect some defensive growing pains from Turner, who's never manned shortstop for an extended period in the big leagues. That's where the presence of bench coach Chris Speier, a longtime major league shortstop, might come in handy.

"We have Chris Speier here, who was outstanding," Baker said. "He was a young shortstop and he was out of Double-A, I think, when he came up to the Giants will Willie Mays. He's one of the best .. I had in Cincinnati, and he did the same with a young shortstop in Cincinnati (Zack Cozart). He knows what the workload should be and he knows what it's like to play every day. The growing pains, the challenges, will be batting leadoff and playing shortstop. If you're doing a whole bunch of work offensively and doing a whole bunch of work defensively ... He's the sparkplug on offense and he's the brakes on defense."

Turner feels comfortable in the familiar surroundings between second and third bases.

"Heck yeah, I'm excited to go back and prove that I can play there at a high level and try to be consistent and make as many plays as I can for our team," he said. "It's a very demanding position and a lot of responsibilities and I'm excited to take that on and see what I can do.

"That's what I'm focusing on. Just doing everything because in the game I just want it to be a reaction, I think I'm athletic enough to do anything it's just a matter of what's most consistent. And that's what I want to do, I want to complete the play and that gives me a chance to get every guy out so as many plays as I can complete that will make me happy."

Murphy, meanwhile, said he's fully recovered from the hamstring problem that hampered him last season, one that might have been traced to a glute issue earlier in the campaign. But after working through the offseason on a training regimen focused on strengthening his core, he said there are no residual effects of the injury.

"No, not at all," Murphy said. "They did a great job getting it right for the end of the season. The other thing is I played five games at the end of the year and didn't feel it at all. So I've tested it, so I'm not really concerned about it. I also think that we were fortunate enough to clinch the division a little bit earlier. If we had been in a division race, I would have been able to play."

After hitting .347 in his first season in D.C. and finishing second in the National League MVP race to the Cubs' Kris Bryant, Murphy is eager to prove his career year wasn't a fluke. That process starts with making solid contact with every opportunity.

"You never think you're going to go and hit whatever, .340, in this league. It's a tough league," he said. "So you never think you're going to end up doing that. But I was of fortunate to kind of lay the groundwork in New York, and then come in here with Rick (Schu) and Jacque Jones and kind of continue that. You just try to hit it as hard as you can. It's really, really difficult to hit a ball at 95 mph, but if you can get it off the barrel at 100, I can speak from personal experience, it's really hard to catch. That's kind of the goal, I think, is to try to knuckle it and hit it as hard as you can."