Photo by Steve Mears/TalkNats

The Nationals got the privilege last night of playing the Venezuelan national team in West Palm Beach before they begin WBC (World Baseball Classic) pool play later this week. A neat opportunity for the Nats to face a lineup featuring names like Ronald Acuna Jr., Luis Arraez, Salvador Perez, Jackson Chourio, Eugenio Suarez, Wilyer Abreu, Willson Contreras, and Andres Gimenez. Even cooler, the Nationals not only won, but held Venezuela to just one run.

The Good

We got our first taste of Foster Griffin last night, and I didn’t hate it. The lefty in his first appearance in a Nationals uniform threw two scoreless innings, scattering two hits, a walk, and a strikeout of Acuna to begin the game. An encouraging sign for Nationals fans, as Griffin is being trusted with helping to stabilize this shaky starting rotation.

The bullpen had another strong performance last night, particularly from some guys who are either projected already to be on the opening day roster or are competing for the last spots. Cionel Perez, Clayton Beeter, PJ Poulin, Cole Henry, Paxton Schultz, and Zach Penrod all put up scoreless innings in their relief outings last night, adding further encouragement to what’s been a nice start to the spring for the relief core.

The big blow in last night’s game was a three-run home run by Keibert Ruiz in the bottom of the sixth inning, bringing the score to 5-1, which would be the game’s final. Ruiz has looked pretty impressive so far this spring, making it clear that Blake Butera is going to have to really be infatuated with Harry Ford to give him the starting job over Keibert out of camp.

Elsewhere, from returning starters, CJ Abrams had a nice night, reaching base twice in three at-bats. The Nats’ shortstop drew a walk and singled last night, but the best performance all around might have to go to Daylen Lile. A name we haven’t talked about much so far this spring, Lile finally looked like himself last night, going 2-2 with an RBI and a stolen base to help the Nats breathe a little easier, seeing him start to look like the 2025 version we saw last summer.

The New Guys

Last night was a rough one for the few Nats’ prospects who did actually get into the game, however it is still nice to see guys like Phillip Glasser, Elijah Green, YoYo Morales, and Cayden Wallace getting as much exposure to big league play as possible.

It was reported late last night that the Nationals have made their second round of cuts from big league camp, and I don’t know what you guys will think, but a couple of these names surprise me. Infielder Warming Bernabel, utility man Phillip Glasser, left-handed pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara, outfielder Andrew Pinckney, and infielder Cayden Wallace have all been reassigned to minor league camp. To me, it’s not a surprise that any of these guys are being sent to the minors to start the year, although it is a relief to me that the new regime sees Ogasawara for the real value he brings to a big league team. The bigger surprise is who is still in camp, guys like Seaver King and Elijah Green are still up with the big leaguers despite being much further from the majors than guys like Pinckney or Morales. I do wonder however, if being sent to minor league camp will increase their reps each day, in which case I’m all for it.

What’s Next?

The Nationals are back in action at 1:05 this afternoon from West Palm Beach, where they’ll take on the Mets. Miles Mikolas will get his second start of the spring, coming off two scoreless innings in his first outing. Look for the Nats to try and stretch him out to three, maybe even four innings in this one today if he’s effective.