Vargas leaves for rehab assignment; Martinez on lineup changes

NEW YORK – The Nationals had one noticeable player missing from the clubhouse before tonight’s series finale against the Mets. Ildemaro Vargas, on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain since April 11, left the team to start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Rochester.

“He went out this morning, though they, unfortunately, had a day game today,” manager Davey Martinez said of his backup utility infielder. “So he's got to start playing tomorrow.”

Vargas jammed his shoulder while making a diving play earlier this month in Colorado. He had recently been able to most of the usual baseball activities, but Martinez had said it still bothered the switch-hitter when swinging right-handed.

When he arrives at Rochester, Vargas will get most of his reps at shortstop while also getting at-bats from both sides of the plate.

“Yeah, he's got to go out there,” Martinez said. “I want him to play some shortstop. I want to see him field. He's definitely got to swing the bat. Hopefully, he can swing both left-handed and right-handed. But we'll see how he does and we'll see how long it's gonna take for him to go out and come back. There's no timetable yet, but hopefully it's only a few days.”

The Red Wings are in the middle of a homestand, so it should have been an easy trip upstate from Queens. The Nationals return to D.C. for a seven-game homestand tomorrow before heading out for a West Coast road trip.

Meanwhile, the healthy infielders still with the big league club had a little bit of a shakeup today for the starting lineup. Dominic Smith and Luis García get tonight off against left-hander Joey Lucchesi.

“Yeah, I just wanted to give them a day off,” Martinez said. “We got back-to-back lefties, but it's more for Luis. Luis has been playing since he came back ... with his hamstring (injury). He's been playing every day, so I just wanted to give him a day. Then a long train ride tonight, but ultimately he's gotta be available to play sometime today too, as well.”

That means Joey Meneses moves to first base, Stone Garrett serves as the designated hitter and Michael Chavis plays second base instead of Jeter Downs.

“Chavis is our guy,” Martinez said. “He made the team. He's been playing against lefties. He hasn't played in a while because we haven't faced lefties. So I wanted him to play today.”

Downs has not seen the field since being recalled when Vargas hit the IL. What’s he doing to stay ready when called upon?

“Oh, he's working. He's working,” Martinez said. “We feel like he's still young. He's got some stuff to work on. He's working diligently with (Ricky Gutierrez) and (Gary Disarcina) on his defense and working really hard on his hitting. We saw some things in spring training that we want to kind of correct. And we're really trying to get him on plane and get his swing a little flatter, so he can start making more contact. Hard contact. But he's working and so far he's doing well.”

As for the outfielders, with Corey Dickerson still out with a left calf strain, Garrett is still getting at-bats when other big bats need a day off. That includes serving as the DH when Meneses moves over to first base, where he actually has better offensive production as opposed to when he’s the designated hitter, albeit in a small sample size.

“Yeah, I mean for me, right now, he's gonna get most of the at-bats at DH,” Martinez said of Meneses. “That can change. Look, I got some outfielders that I want to play. I want to see them play. Stone Garrett's another one that has limited playing time. But when I get an opportunity, I want to get him out there. Meneses has the bulk of the DH at-bats and today gets to play some first base, with Dom having the day off. So we'll try to get him out there as much as possible. But I talk to him about just continuing to work on his routine, DHing, and I think he's getting better at it.”

Those chances will continue to come, especially against left-handed pitching, since Dickerson doesn't appear any closer to a rehab assignment, nonetheless returning to the active roster.

“Not yet, not yet,” Martinez said. “We just talked about him today. It's still gonna be some time. We gotta get him running. We got to get him to do some agility. And as soon as that happens, he's gonna have to go out and play. But not yet.”