It’s still hard to believe that the television situation has been resolved, even if we must endure one more year of MASN’s bargain-basement production levels. Other than the game against the Cardinals, Tuesday was a pretty slow day, so there isn’t much to report.

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals by a score of 6-4 in West Palm Beach yesterday. RHP Jake Irvin was once again impressive and efficient in his third game of Spring Training, going 4.0 innings and allowing just two hits and one walk. Evan Reifert and Andry Lara gave up five runs combined, ultimately doing the Nats in despite a decent offensive performance. This is worth noting since the two of them will not be on the Opening Day roster, so it is not like this game reflected how anything will look this season.

Offensively, the Nationals had a decent day. While they only got six hits, they also showed impressive plate discipline by taking just as many walks. Alex Call and Amed Rosario each got two RBIs. Call’s came from an opposite-field line drive double, and Rosario’s from a single up the middle. Out in center field, Dylan Crews made an outstanding diving catch while team president Mike Rizzo was talking to the broadcast crew about bringing Kyle Finnegan back, and the play clearly impressed Rizzo (see the video above). Ultimately, this game revealed nothing unexpected about this team on either side of the ball.

Up Next:

Today, the Washington Nationals will head to Jupiter, FL to take on the Miami Marlins at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, with the game starting at 1:05 p.m. The Nationals will have left-hander Shinosuke Ogasawara (1-1, 6.75 ERA) on the mound, while the Marlins will counter with right-hander Sandy Alcántara (0-0, 0.00 ERA). Alcántara, who missed all of 2024 after undergoing Tommy John surgery late in the 2023 season, might be the most valuable trade asset in baseball right now assuming he remains healthy, a proven elite starter on a terrible team who is under contract for two more years at a very reasonable $17.5 million each, with a $21 million team option for 2027. Any GM of a contending team with a strong farm system and a hole in their rotation should be blowing up Peter Bendix’s phone from now until August.

Sometimes, spring training is framed as a wide-open competition for playing time, but that hasn’t been true probably since the days of Branch Rickey. In reality, there are only ever two to five roster spots that are truly up for grabs, and the Nationals are no different. It would appear that Shinosuke Ogasawara, DJ Herz, and Mitchell Parker have one rotation spot to split between them, although Herz did very well down the stretch a year ago and should have the leg up. In the bullpen, Rule 5 draft pick Evan Reifert has not shown yet that he is worth stashing for the whole season a la Thaddeus Ward and Nasim Nuñez before him, while Cole Henry - he of the same thoracic outlet syndrome surgery as Stephen Strasburg - has come back from the dead, recording nine of fourteen outs so far via strikeout and allowing just four hits. Finally, the last spot on the bench would figure to come down to Juan Yépez, Andrés Chaparro, or José Tena. Tena would be yet another lefty bat on a team already full of them, and the Nats would probably prefer that he play every day in Rochester rather than be stapled to the major league bench. That leaves the two AAAA sluggers, and the current early leader would look to be Yépez, who has slightly more defensive versatility in that he is atrocious defensively at more positions than Chaparro.

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📌 The summer concert series has been announced (MLB.com)

📌 Nats make first cuts of the spring (MASN)

📌 Does Lowe have 30-HR power? (MLB.com)