Adam Eaton, last seen in a major league game last April, will play in a Grapefruit League game Saturday. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The long Washington Nationals nightmare is over. Adam Eaton and Michael A. Taylor, long promised to be fine physically and long held out of Grapefruit League lineups with an abundance of caution, are scheduled to play Saturday.
Eaton has not appeared in a game since late last April, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament. Taylor has not appeared in a Grapefruit League game since he felt pain in his side March 4. Both have been getting at-bats in minor league games in recent weeks.
“We had the schedule planned. It’s been planned,” Eaton said. “Of course nothing is ever sketched in stone — er, not sketched, set in stone — because of whatever might happen. But we’re ready to go. Should be fun. Everything’s going really well.”
For days, Manager Dave Martinez assured reporters that both Eaton and Taylor were fine and that he and the Nationals’ staff were exercising caution. Eaton would laugh when people wondered aloud about his status, bragging about the home runs he was hitting on the back fields. Now he will return Saturday, when he will hit third behind Trea Turner and leadoff man Bryce Harper. (Tanner Roark will hit eighth. Martinez is experimenting.)
[Victor Robles gets to the clubhouse early. He might get to the majors the same way.]
When Eaton is right and when all of the Nationals’ regulars are back, he probably will lead off. But for now, he probably will get two at-bats in that three spot Saturday and build on that in the days to come.
“It’s going to be an accelerated eight days. What we usually do in six weeks of spring training, we’re going to do in eight days,” Eaton said. “I’ve gotten more at-bats to date than if I had a normal spring training. I think I have 50 to 60 at-bats right now, which is crazy. Seeing pitches, which is the most important thing in my opinion. Defense, of course, is important. That’s going to be my main focus when I get out there, just playing defense and learning left field. That’s the only thing I think I need catching up on.”
Martinez said Eaton will not play every day once he returns, which seems prudent. Eaton said he wants to be in the lineup every day once the regular season begins but that he will have to listen to his body to determine that. Until Thursday, he had not played the field in a game this spring. Games require bursts of movement, which are harder to simulate in workouts with coaches. Eaton said he has gotten to the point in his recovery that every step leaves him feeling better and doesn’t set him back.
“The short little burst I had yesterday, I didn’t have the day before. It’s super weird. I think even [Saturday], I’ll have more bursts, if history repeats itself, and I’ll have more explosion,” Eaton said. “Once we start playing every day, I’m hoping history repeats itself and it comes back a little more readily available. But they keep telling me that’s how it goes. Day-to-day, you continue to get better. And all of a sudden one day, it’ll just be like normal.”
Taylor has felt normal for some time. He lost a month to an oblique injury last year but said he knew the pain he felt in his side two weeks ago wasn’t the same level of trouble. Still, Martinez opted for caution and relegated Taylor to the back fields, where he hit multiple homers and looked just fine.
Ryan Zimmerman will not return to the lineup Saturday, though panic about some secret injury seems unjustified. Zimmerman casually discussed the merits of avoiding spring training games with teammates and reporters Friday morning and spent the hours just before the Grapefruit League game against the Cardinals hitting balls out of Field 2 while taking extra batting practice with Kevin Long.
[On Friday, all of the Nationals’ title hopes rested on a single swing — of a golf club]
Martinez will not say when Zimmerman will return to the lineup, though with only eight games after Saturday’s, he’s running out of chances. The new Nationals manager is holding out the first baseman because of his injury-riddled recent history, and for the same reason, skepticism will remain until the 33-year-old allays those concerns.
Gio Gonzalez stirred some injury concerns of own when he made a motion as if stretching his side in his fifth inning of a solid outing Friday. Martinez hurried out, pulling trainer Paul Lessard with him, but Gonzalez was smiling after a conversation ended with Martinez and Lessard heading back to the dugout without him.
“I told Davey, ‘I know this is our first rodeo together, but I do that a lot,’ ” Gonzalez said. “Especially now, I’m up in age, I do that a little more.”
Gonzalez said Lessard reassured Martinez that Gonzalez would say something if he were hurt, but the checkup didn’t hurt. Gonzalez threw 77 pitches in five innings and allowed one run. He will get at least one more start before the Nationals head north.
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