WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Daniel Murphy won’t be in Washington’s Opening Day lineup. He finally admitted that Wednesday, when someone pointed out that it would be hard to see him advance from running only on a treadmill to playing in actual games in the eight days before the regular season begins.
“I think it’s reasonable to expect I won’t be in the Opening Day lineup,” Murphy said, with a hint of sarcasm that implied he, like his team, had known that for quite some time.
Murphy is mostly fielding groundballs hit right at him, and a few that require minor lateral movement. He is hitting on the field but hasn’t seen live pitching since October. And when he hits, he can’t put his weight in his legs like he usually does, still easing into the lower-body part of his efforts. Without the ability to practice his whole swing, Murphy has had to focus more on contact — seeing the ball, then centering it on the bat.
Murphy underwent microfracture surgery on his right knee Oct. 20, almost exactly five months ago, a surgery he didn’t know he would need until shortly before he had it. Murphy was experiencing leg trouble throughout the last month or so of the 2017 season, but all indications were the trouble was muscular. Now, his surgically repaired knee is healed but needs strength.
“We want him to be 100 percent healthy and ready. We don’t want him to come back and play three days, and if his knee swells up he can’t play for two,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “We want him to be comfortable out there and make sure when he joins us he’s ready to play every day.”
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So Murphy will wait. He will remain in West Palm Beach when his teammates head home. He will train here until he is ready for games, though he can play plenty of those in extended spring training, too. But because Murphy has not begun running on the field or even taking at-bats in minor league games without running, it seems his early season absence will best be measured in weeks, not days.
“Naturally, for any athlete, I’m going to come back later than I wanted to,” Murphy said. ” … I think whenever I do come back, from my personal perspective it’ll be later [than hoped for], but that doesn’t mean it’ll be wrong.”
- Trea Turner was back in the lineup Wednesday, two days after having a procedure done to eradicate an ingrown toenail. He is fine.
- Gio Gonzalez allowed eight runs, four earned, on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings Wednesday. Gonzalez joins Tanner Roark, Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg in enduring rough outings in their past turn through the rotation, though unlike Scherzer and Strasburg, Gonzalez will not get another Grapefruit League start. He threw 94 pitches, pushing his stamina, which is good. Gonzalez chalked the bad results up to execution and dismissed them. “Don’t read into what you saw out there,” he said. “It’s all [bull droppings.]”
Read more on the Nationals:
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Nationals name Max Scherzer their Opening Day starter, though it was never in doubt
Barry Svrluga: Dialing back the Max: Nationals seek to manage the relentless Scherzer
Sports Illustrated predicts the Nationals will beat the Yankees in the World Series
