The Washington Nationals have two games on the schedule today. The first game is a traditional Spring Training game against the Tampa Bay Rays at the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches at 1:05 pm ET. Shortly after that game ends is an exhibition game of the Nationals top prospects against the Mets top prospects in the final SPRING BREAKOUT game at 5:05 pm ET.
Today’s first game will be a 1:05 pm start time, and the game will be available on radio only via the Nationals 106.7 FM The Fan and via the MLB App. The SPRING BREAKOUT game at 5:05 pm is available on MASN, SNY and the MLB app.
The Nationals are at 11-9-1 in Grapefruit League play. Manager Dave Martinez saw his team beat a Mets team that brought a more powerful squad to face his team. Starter Mitchell Parker bent but didn’t break, and while he got himself in jams — he worked himself out of them too.
A few days ago, Martinez was asked about who would be his fifth starter which appears to be a competition between DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker at this point. There might not be enough time for Shinnosuke Ogasawara to show what he has. Let’s look at ERA and WHIP for each: Herz 6.52/1.970, Parker 3.65/1.220, Ogasawara 7.56/2.520. Now, Ogasawara did pitch on the backfields yesterday.
“It was good to see both those guys [on Saturday]. They both threw the ball really well. It was a good day for our pitching staff.”
— Martinez said of Parker and Ogasawara
One starter who is out of the competition for the rotation is Jackson Rutledge as he will join Cole Henry as former starters who have officially been moved to the bullpen.
With the competition for the starting rotation whittled down, it looks like Parker is the frontrunner — but Martinez won’t name that 5th starter just yet.
“What I like is, he had to pitch in some high leverage situations, and he was able to make some really good pitches and get out of it, which is just awesome.”
— Martinez said
RHP Zach Brzykcy has been dealing with a quadricep tendon issue, and he wasn’t projected to make the Opening Day roster prior to the announcement of his injury. Amed Rosario who was scratched due to soreness in his knee earlier in the week was back to play. But we have our first Spring Training injury that will result in an IL move as Andres Chaparro injured his oblique and he will start the season on the IL.
Here is the 40-man roster as well as a list of the NRI players you will be seeing. As you also had been seeing, players from Minor League camp have been subbing in late to get some action.
There are 11-days until the Opening Day, and we get to see this lineup today and this could be a similar day game after a night game lineup with the exception of Paul DeJong at third base while giving Josh Bell and Keibert Ruiz a rest and getting James Wood in the lineup while saving his legs:
- CJ Abrams – SS
- Dylan Crews – RF
- James Wood – DH
- Nathaniel Lowe – 1B
- Luis García Jr. – 2B
- Alex Call LF
- Jose Tena 3B
- Jacob Young – CF
The SPRING BREAKOUT lineup will be posted when available. Of note, the only team in the Grapefruit League with two SPRING BREAKOUT games are the Washington Nationals. That will allow the team to showcase many more top prospects, and this roster will be slightly different from Friday’s roster and lineup. That game with started by Jarlin Susana. Obviously he won’t be pitching today.
