Nationals react to Desmond's signing, position switch

Nationals react to Desmond's signing, position switch
VIERA, Fla. - Ian Desmond finally has a new home. And a new position. Desmond has agreed to terms on a one-year contract with the Rangers worth $8 million, according to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal. Surprising as the low dollar figure and late timing of his signing is, even more surprising is the fact Texas plans to play the lifelong shortstop in left field. Such was the state of this offseason for Desmond, whose stock plummeted due to the combination of a subpar year with the Nationals,...
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Nats hit the field Sunday morning for intrasquad game

Nats hit the field Sunday morning for intrasquad game
VIERA, Fla. - The Nationals haven't traditionally held intrasquad games at spring training, but Dusty Baker has. And what Dusty wants, Dusty gets. So it is that the Nats will split up into two teams this morning and play a pseudo-exhibition game against each other. Just don't count on this resembling anything like an official game. For one thing, the plan is to play at most eight innings. Possibly fewer than that, if all the pitchers get used up. Each pitcher is scheduled to throw one inning,...
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Players soak in Davey Lopes' knowledge on the bases

Players soak in Davey Lopes' knowledge on the bases
VIERA, Fla. - Davey Lopes has been doing this - either as a player, a coach or a manager - for more than four decades now. Baserunning is his livelihood, and few have ever done - or taught - it better. So when the 70-year-old first base coach (reunited with the Nationals a decade after he held that same position on Frank Robinson's staff) stood on Field 2 outside Space Coast Stadium this morning offering a 45-minute clinic on the craft of baserunning, every position player on the roster was...
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Observations and quotes from Saturday's workout (with videos)

Observations and quotes from Saturday's workout (with videos)
VIERA, Fla. - Some observations, notes and quotes about today's full-squad workout, the final one before intrasquad games start up Sunday ... * The session opened with a lengthy baserunning clinic run by Davey Lopes. I'll have a full post on this later, but just know the session lasted about 45 minutes and literally covered every base. Lopes started with everyone at the plate, then moved to first base, second base and third base. It was as comprehensive a clinic as I can remember seeing on...
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It's Scherzer vs. Ross in Sunday's intrasquad game

It's Scherzer vs. Ross in Sunday's intrasquad game
VIERA, Fla. - It's a lazy Saturday morning here at Nationals camp, the doldrums of spring training starting to set in. Everyone is heading over to the back fields now for another full-squad workout, featuring the usual live BP sessions, defensive drills, etc. The biggest news of the morning so far: Danny Espinosa shaved his beard. Given how big it had grown, it might well have taken two hours to do it. You'll be happy to know (or perhaps horrified to know) that Danny had his official...
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Saturday morning Q&A from Nats camp

Saturday morning Q&A from Nats camp
VIERA, Fla. - Spring training has now officially been underway for more than a week, and though more than five weeks still remain until opening day, enough has taken place here in Viera to start getting a sense of how the 2016 Nationals look. Dusty Baker (along with his coaching staff) has begun to put his stamp on this franchise. Bryce Harper has forgiven Jonathan Papelbon and proclaimed he won't put any limits on himself, even in the wake of an MVP performance. Ryan Zimmerman reported...
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News and notes to wrap up the work week in Viera

News and notes to wrap up the work week in Viera
VIERA, Fla. - Some odds and ends to wrap up the work week at Nationals spring training ... * We had a rare, star-studded matchup in live batting practice this morning, with Max Scherzer on the mound to face a group of hitters that included Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman. That sort of thing doesn't happen very often. (I recall a last-minute session last spring that pitted Harper against Stephen Strasburg, but that's about the only other showdown of this caliber I can remember taking place...
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Injury-plagued season behind him, Rendon starts anew

Injury-plagued season behind him, Rendon starts anew
VIERA, Fla. - It was a seemingly innocuous play, a simple dive to field a hard bouncer to his left. Anthony Rendon made the play, snagging Alberto Callaspo's chopper and firing a one-hopper to first to nail the Braves infielder. The sparse crowd at Space Coast Stadium applauded. Who could have known at the time that last March 9 play would have such lasting consequences for Rendon, and perhaps the Nationals as a whole? "Just bad luck," Rendon said this week, recalling the incident. What at...
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Werth returns to camp, believes he can return to past form

Werth returns to camp, believes he can return to past form
VIERA, Fla. - Jayson Werth was back at Space Coast Stadium this morning, still under the weather but feeling better than he did Thursday, when the Nationals sent him home so his illness wouldn't spread through the clubhouse. A day or two off at this early stage of the spring won't do anything to set Werth back in his preparation for the season. But as he approaches 37, with a surgically repaired right shoulder he suggested still isn't 100 percent and a history of freak-yet-serious left wrist...
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Baker's message: "Think like a family"

Baker's message: "Think like a family"
VIERA, Fla. - Dusty Baker had plenty of time to think about what he wanted to say to his new Nationals roster in his first full-squad meeting Thursday morning. He prepared an outline in his mind, but he has always preferred not to write out an actual speech in advance. He'd rather speak from the heart once the time arrives. So what was Baker's message when he finally opened his mouth before Thursday's first full-squad workout of the spring? "You want them to start thinking like a...
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Observations and quotes from Thursday's workout

Observations and quotes from Thursday's workout
VIERA, Fla. - Conditions weren't exactly ideal when the Nationals trotted onto the back fields outside Space Coast Stadium for their first full squad workout of the spring. Temperatures in the 50s? A 30-mph wind howling from the northwest? Not quite what Dusty Baker expected. "It was kind of chilly, considering we're in Florida," the new manager said. "But they didn't say anything. They just worked, which is what I like." Some observations (non-weather-related) from today's workout...
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Sent home sick, Jayson Werth misses first workout

Sent home sick, Jayson Werth misses first workout
VIERA, Fla. - The Nationals' first full-squad workout of the spring came and went without one of the club's most recognizable players in attendance. Jayson Werth was absent from this morning's workout on the fields outside Space Coast Stadium due to an illness that left the veteran outfielder in bed. "We sent him home," manager Dusty Baker said. "He was sick. So we quarantined him. We didn't want him to spread it." Werth had appeared at the stadium several times earlier this week,...
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Blake Treinen stunned to be part of "Jeopardy!" clue

Blake Treinen stunned to be part of "Jeopardy!" clue
VIERA, Fla. - Blake Treinen was hanging out Wednesday evening, minding his own business, when his phone rang. He glanced down, saw it was his mother calling and answered, assuming she was just checking in on things. The call proved to be not nearly as banal as that. "You're never going to guess what happened!" she yelled into the phone. "You were a clue on 'Jeopardy!'" Within minutes, Treinen's phone was buzzing nonstop, with Nationals teammates and coaches, old friends and relatives...
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Health is Ryan Zimmerman's real issue in 2016

Health is Ryan Zimmerman's real issue in 2016
VIERA, Fla. - So far in this first week of spring training, nearly all discussion of Ryan Zimmerman has been focused on his attempt to clear his name in the wake of Al Jazeera America's controversial documentary naming him as a receiver of performance enhancing drugs. Zimmerman spent roughly 20 minutes Tuesday answering question after question about that documentary and the subsequent defamation lawsuit he and the Phillies' Ryan Howard have filed against Al Jazeera, one of the network's...
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Teammates get hacks in against Scherzer in live BP session

Teammates get hacks in against Scherzer in live BP session
VIERA, Fla. - The prospect of the first live batting practice session of the spring brought a little extra sense of excitement to Nationals camp this morning. That excitement, though, was dampened by the prospect of a major line of storms sweeping across Florida and supposedly set to barrel through the Space Coast smack dab during the middle of the workout. Turns out, all they got was a little rain and some strong wind, nothing severe enough to disrupt the workout. "The main thing is we dodged...
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Nick Johnson rejoins Nationals as spring training instructor

Nick Johnson rejoins Nationals as spring training instructor
VIERA, Fla. - It's been seven years since Nick Johnson last donned a Nationals uniform, but there was something comforting about the site of the former first baseman standing at the batting cage this morning, a curly W on his cap, watching current members of the team take swings off live pitchers. What, exactly, is Johnson doing here? "Whatever they need me to do," he said succinctly, to this day still a man of few words. Officially, Johnson is in camp for 10 days as a special instructor....
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Robinson not taking anything for granted after breakthrough 2015

Robinson not taking anything for granted after breakthrough 2015
VIERA, Fla. - When he arrived back home in Fayetteville, Ark., in October, Clint Robinson could well have been viewed a wholly different man than he was when he left eight months prior. After nearly a decade in professional baseball and 921 minor league games, he had finally broken through as a big leaguer for a full season, a successful one at that. Anybody who knows Robinson, of course, knows that would never be the case. Because he would never allow it to be the case. "Everybody knows how...
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What's the story behind Dusty Baker's toothpick?

What's the story behind Dusty Baker's toothpick?
VIERA, Fla. - Close your eyes and conjure up an image of Dusty Baker, watching his team from the top step of the dugout - cap on, sunglasses perched on his nose, hand to his chin as he ponders his next move. Now what does Baker have in his mouth? A toothpick, right? It has become synonymous with the Nationals' new manager. For decades, he's rarely been seen at work without a toothpick twirling between his lips. But why? How and when did this all start? Baker shared the story Tuesday from his...
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Baker realizes tough pitching decisions loom this spring

Baker realizes tough pitching decisions loom this spring
VIERA, Fla. - With only four days of official pitchers and catchers workouts in the books, Dusty Baker is still trying to get a full sense of what exactly he has to work with at Nationals camp. Some players' names still elude him, and his scouting reports are far from complete, but the new manager does have a strong overall impression on the state of his pitching staff. "I've had some good teams, but these are the toughest pitching decisions I've ever had to make," said Baker, who has two...
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Ryan Zimmerman denies PED use, explains defamation suit

Ryan Zimmerman denies PED use, explains defamation suit
VIERA, Fla. - Ryan Zimmerman today vehemently denied ever using performance enhancing drugs or knowing the trainer who accused him of using them, and offered a detailed explanation why he was willing to file a defamation suit against the television network that aired the allegation that jolted the Nationals first baseman's offseason. In his first public comments since Al Jazeera America aired a documentary in December accusing him and several other high-profile athletes of receiving shipments...
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