With Taylor on DL and Werth weeks away, outfield shuffled again

They lost Adam Eaton to a season-ending ACL tear on April 28. They lost Jayson Werth to a bone bruise on the inside of his left foot on June 3. And now that they've lost Michael A. Taylor to a strained right oblique muscle, the Nationals are finding their outfield depth tested like never before.

With Taylor officially placed on the 10-day disabled list this afternoon, the Nationals will turn to their third-string center fielder for the immediate future: Brian Goodwin. And they'll turn to a combination of Ryan Raburn (who only joined the club one month ago) and Chris Heisey (who was just activated off the DL after six weeks dealing with a ruptured biceps tendon) as their third-string left fielders, trying to cobble together their outfield until the regulars can return.

"I guess that's what a team is," Heisey said. "A long season, every team's going to have some injuries. Maybe more than you hope for. And hopefully guys can fill in like they've been doing, and you just weather the storm until the guys that are paid to play every day come back."

When will that happen? That's a question the Nationals can't answer yet. They hope they caught Taylor's oblique strain early enough to avoid a long-term DL stint, but they can't say that definitively just yet.

And given the history of players trying to return from oblique strains - notably Denard Span and Ben Revere in recent seasons - there is a real risk involved.

"The thing about it is, we certainly don't want to rush it, so it can linger," manager Dusty Baker said. "That's the one thing you don't want, for this to reoccur or linger throughout the year. You hope when it's well, it's well."

The Nationals are helped by the All-Star break, which eats up four days and counts as time served on the DL. But the odds of Taylor being ready to play when he's first eligible on July 17 don't appear to be great.

And the odds of Werth being ready to play by then also aren't great. Baker said he's targeting the Nationals' series in Arizona (July 21-23) for the 38-year-old's return from the DL, though that remains a moving target.

Werth, who is currently working out in West Palm Beach, Fla., still needs to go on a rehab assignment with one of the organization's minor league affiliates. And he needs to prove he's 100 percent good to go, recognizing he has had a difficult time getting his swing back after returning from previous injuries in his career.

"He has to be ready. Cause a couple years ago he came back and he wasn't ready, I guess after he broke his wrist," Baker said. "We talked about that. And he struggled. Realistically sometime around the Arizona series (is when we hope he returns)."

Thus the spotlight now shines on Goodwin, Raburn and Heisey. Goodwin has already played more than anyone ever expected and has performed admirably, most of it in left field. Now he's needed to play center field and lead off every night.

"He's very important," Baker said. "He's been good off the bench. He's been very good defensively. He's shown a good arm. We'd like him to possibly, especially in the leadoff position, we'd like to try to steal a little more because he has good speed. ... He's become more and more important as guys fall by the wayside."

Heisey, meanwhile, rejoins the major league roster after his second rehab stint while recovering from a biceps injury that has been tricky to overcome. The veteran outfielder went on his first rehab assignment only a week after suffering the injury but had to cut it short due to pain and an upper right arm that turned black and blue.

He believes the club developed a much better plan for dealing with the rupture the second time around and is confident he's good to go now.

"Even though it was torn completely the first time, it needed time to kind of scar down and heal," he said. "We didn't give it that time the first time. So after a month, I was able to go. I knew the first day, I'd get up the next day and no swelling or discoloration or anything like that. And then it felt good the next day, and so on and so forth. So for a week I had no problem. I'm healthy and good to go."