Garrett begins hitting, Nats sign Diaz to minor-league deal

Recovery from major injuries like the one Stone Garrett sustained this summer requires patience and the willingness to focus on each individual milestone reached without focusing too much on the big picture.

Garrett, who fractured his left fibula trying to make a leaping catch at the wall in right field Aug. 23, can’t think about playing Opening Day for the Nationals right now. All he can do is achieve whatever task is currently in front of him.

And that task right now includes hitting baseballs for the first time since suffering his injury.

“I started hitting last week,” the 28-year-old said Thursday in an interview for the Nats Hot Stove Show on MASN. “I’ve been running on the treadmill for about a month now, so I’ve been trying to incorporate some explosive movements. I’m feeling pretty good.”

Four months removed from the gruesome injury, Garrett looks and feels like a healthy person again. Now he’s getting himself back into baseball shape.

The exercises and activities are basic at this point, nothing too dramatic. But as he proves he can handle these tasks with no issues, the Nationals medical staff will begin to clear him to ramp things up as spring training approaches.

The club isn’t making any declarations about his likelihood of being ready for Opening Day, and Garrett tries not to think about that yet. The mental rehab from this injury can be just as significant as the physical rehab.

“Just try to take the good with the bad,” he said. “Try to stay in a positive mindset, as hard as that can be. Especially when the offseason rolls around, because you feel like you haven’t played a game in years. If it’s watching old highlights, just putting yourself in that positive mindset.”

If Garrett wants to find highlights of his own personal success, he can find plenty of those in the weeks leading up to his injury. Over his final 31 games, he hit a robust .296 with a .381 on-base percentage, .556 slugging percentage and .937 OPS, earning an everyday spot in the lineup after mostly platooning through the season’s first half.

How did he enjoy that surge?

“Just trying to use the whole field, trying to stay under my legs, trying to get a good pitch to hit,” he said. “And when that happened, good things happened.”

* The Nationals signed former Marlins first baseman Lewin Diaz to a minor-league deal Friday, bringing in some more spring training competition at a position that remains up in the air.

Diaz, 27, spent parts of three seasons in the majors with Miami, struggling at the plate to the tune of a .181/.227/.340 slash line with 13 homers, 27 RBIs and 99 strikeouts across 343 plate appearances. He is regarded as a good defensive first baseman, though, which perhaps helped him stick around in spite of his offensive deficiencies.

Diaz spent this season playing for the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk, batting .268/.362/.442 with 17 homers and 64 RBIs across 483 plate appearances. Baltimore never promoted him to the majors.

After letting Dominic Smith (another gifted defender who struggled to hit for power) go last month, the Nationals are still sorting through their first base options for the 2024 season. Manager Davey Martinez suggested Joey Meneses (who primarily served as designated hitter this year) could see more action in the field, whether as an everyday first baseman or part of a platoon.

The Nats also signed 25-year-old Juan Yepez, who had a .240/.286/.419 slash line in 339 big-league plate appearances with the Cardinals, to a minor-league deal this month. Neither the right-handed Yepez nor the left-handed Diaz seems like a serious candidate for regular playing time in the majors, but until the Nationals make any other moves for a first baseman, both find themselves in the mix with Meneses.