The Nats have one final exhibition game on Saturday, at the Naval Academy, against the Boston Red Sox. Today’s game at Nationals Park was rained out, disappointing a van full of Nats fans (Matt, Kahlan, Avery, William and Grandpa) who had just left our house. We will be there on Monday when the Nats open the season against the Miami Marlins.
When they do they may be without three of their best players. Anthony Rendon fouled a ball off his leg on Monday and has not been able to return to baseball activities since. Daniel Murphy has been sick since getting back from the World Baseball Classic at which he sat the bench for the most part. He has not played enough in Spring Training to get his stroke back and I think he looks sluggish. Finally the reigning Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer will not start on Opening Day because he dealt with stress fracture in his knuckle for most of Spring Training. He should pitch in game 2 or 3.
On the positive side, Bryce Harper left Florida ready for a bounce back season. He hit 8 home runs and was driving the ball hard to left field and right. Trea Turner recovered from a slow start both offensively and defensively and is hot right now. Ryan Zimmerman regained hit stroke in Florida and looks prepared to improve on 2016. Rendon was hitting and looking good before his injury. And the bullpen looks good.
On the down side, Matt Wieters has yet to hit, Adam Easton is trying to find his way around a new team, Jason Werth has not hit well except one monster home run, and the starting pitching other than Scherzer has been spotty.
The bench will be deeper with the addition of Adam Lind. The final cut will probably be either Wilmer Diffo or Michael Taylor and it may depend on Rendon’s and Murphy’s health.
All in all the Nationals are capable of having an exciting year. They have all the necessary pieces to make a run at the NL East Crown and make a run deep into the playoffs. Injuries and the utter difficulty of a 162 game season will ultimately decide their fate but it should be an exciting year. GO NATS!
