Martinez hopes to get Romero back soon, Cabrera's value soars

Manager Davey Martinez is still awaiting news regarding Stephen Strasburg, who underwent right hand surgery in Baltimore today to relieve his carpal tunnel neuritis.

Martinez will meet with director of athletic training Paul Lessard postgame to go over the results. Strasburg is out for the season.

"Waiting to hear from Paul to see how it went," Martinez said. "I haven't talked to him yet. I'll get some more information after the game here. Hopefully, it went well."

Left-hander Seth Romero is also having surgery on his right hand. The Nats are hoping to get him back this season.

"Seth is going to have surgery," Martinez said. "I think they are going to put a pin in his hand. They think that's the fastest way to heal his fracture."

The idea is to get Romero back within the month, but time is running out. Martinez believes that Romero will return to bullpen sessions as soon as the hand heals from the surgery.

"Hopefully, if everything goes well, we are going to continue to have him throw," Martinez said. "He's going to go to Fredericksburg and throw. The good thing is it's his glove hand. If everything goes well and he can start throwing right away, and the sooner we can get a glove on it. It will take two to three weeks to get re-examined.

"As soon as they deem that bone is healing, then he can get a glove on and we'll go from there. We are definitely going to keep him going, keep him throwing. I know we talked about him maybe throwing bullpens if he needed to, because it's not his throwing hand, so that's kind of good. Hopefully, we'll get him going. He heals fast, he's a young kid. And then we'll see if we can get him back here."

Asdrúbal Cabrera has been a little sore lately. His stock becomes even more valuable now after the news came out late today that Carter Kieboom has been optioned to the alternate training site. That would open up a lot of time for the veteran at third base. But Martinez needs him healthy enough to play. The skipper had hoped that he would not have to rely on the 34-year-old for every game.

"He fouled a ball off his foot," Martinez said of Cabrera. "I don't know if you guys remember that. He's pretty sore. So, he's kind of dealing with that. Other than that, he says he feels good. He's been playing an awful lot. I was hoping when the season started to give him some days off. He's been really good and he's been driving in some big runs for us.

"I'm asking him to play pretty much every day in different positions, and he's accepted it. We definitely got to keep an eye on it. I gave him one day off because his foot was sore and he's battling through that now, but I just got to talk to him and see how he's doing and see if he's available to play today, because his bat is big in our lineup."

Martinez said he has heard from second baseman Starlin Castro, who has returned to his home in Miami to rehab his broken right wrist. He is expected to be out for an extended period of time, hoping for an early October return.