Pregame notes on Strasburg, Zimmerman, Difo and Wieters

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - We're now a full week into Grapefruit League play, but today is a pseudo-debut day for several Nationals.

Stephen Strasburg is on the mound against an opponent for the first time. Strasburg, who tossed one inning in last Thursday's intrasquad game, is slated to pitch two innings today against the Cardinals

The Nationals held off Strasburg's Grapefruit League debut by a couple of days to help line him up the way they prefer entering the season. With Max Scherzer's status still up in the air as he recovers from a stress fracture in his right ring finger, Strasburg now is on a schedule that would make him available to start opening day if necessary.

For now, manager Dusty Baker isn't thinking about any of that. He's more interested in making sure Strasburg gets through this outing with no issues after being sidelined last September and October with an elbow injury.

"I just want Stras to be Stras," Baker said. "I want to see how he feels. Other than that, we just want him to get his work in."

Like his teammate on the mound, Ryan Zimmerman makes his game debut this afternoon. Zimmerman, batting sixth and playing first base, has had no health issues this spring. But given how long camp is to accommodate the World Baseball Classic, he and Baker mapped out a plan where he wouldn't start playing in games until now.

"Just trying to make sure he's healthy," Baker said, "make sure everything's right, that I get him a certain amount of reps and that I keep him strong."

Pedro Severino also makes his debut today behind the plate, the rookie catcher having dealt with some shoulder soreness through the first two weeks of camp.

There was a point early in the offseason when there perhaps was some thought Severino could wind up the Nationals' starting catcher in 2017. Or perhaps be part of a platoon with José Lobaton. The subsequent acquisitions of Derek Norris and then Matt Wieters, of course, ended that speculation. But the organization still remains high on the 23-year-old.

"We want Sevy to play," Baker said. "In my mind, Sevy, he's real close. Here's a guy who caught (Game 1 of the National League Division Series) at the end of the year. To me, he's the catcher of the future. And when that future is, it could be now, it could be later."

Meanwhile, up the road in Jupiter the other half of the Nationals' split-squad faces the Marlins, with Wilmer Difo expected to come off the bench and play outfield for the first time.

Difo, who has played exclusively in the infield as a professional, faces long odds of making the opening day roster with Stephen Drew already locked in as the backup infielder. But the Nationals could find a way to keep him if he can also serve as a backup in the outfield.

"This is adding to his potential value," Baker said. "We had hoped that Difo would play some outfield (this winter) in the Dominican. It's my understanding he didn't play hardly at all out there, which is what we wanted. So we've got to do it here. We're also experimenting with (Emmanuel) Burriss playing in the outfield, too. ... That is a valuable, valuable person. Any time you can move guys around and not lose anything defensively, that is a big, big, big plus."

If all goes according to plan today, only three players in camp will have yet to appear in a game: Scherzer and the recently acquired Joe Blanton and Wieters.

Blanton, who was just officially signed Thursday, is beginning to throw bullpen sessions and will ramp up to game action. Wieters, meanwhile, is "a few days" from making his Nats debut, Baker said.

"He's getting over some soreness just from training and not being here," the manager said. "I don't care how you train by yourself. When you train by yourself, or away from here, your training is probably no more than a couple hours, probably, max. It usually doesn't take that long to work out. But when you're out here, now you're out here all day. You're not squatting, catching people all day. You're not throwing quite as much. You're not running. The main thing is, you're not on your feet all day long."