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VIERA, Fla. - Ryan Zimmerman's left groin injury continues to slowly heal and Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman hopes to have his third baseman resume some baseball activities by later this weekend.
"I would say that this weekend he'll get back into some baseball stuff, hitting and fielding, and maybe early next week get him in some games," said Riggleman.
Zimmerman hasn't played since tweaking his groin against the Tigers on Monday.
Riggleman said the Nationals will take a conservative approach with Zimmerman, resting him now rather than playing him in games and limiting his movement. Zimmerman has said that he would play through the injury if it were the regular season.
"It's a sensitive area there," Riggleman explained. "The higher up an injury is in your leg, the longer it generally takes to heal because it's just harder to stretch it and all that. I think Zim had said it, 'If this is the season, I'd be playing.' He'd be playing, but ... he'd have to really take away from his game a little bit, so we're trying to not do that in spring training. Let him get right before he goes back out there."
Meanwhile, two injured Nationals were listed in the starting lineup for Friday's home game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Second baseman Danny Espinosa returned after leaving Tuesday's game against the Mets in Port St. Lucie because he fouled a ball off his right foot, resulting in a contusion. Catcher Ivan Rodriguez is back after pulling a left calf muscle warming up before Tuesday's game.
