Analysis/Opinion:
When you see your Washington Nationals take the field Monday afternoon for their opener at Nationals Park against the New York Mets, you will indeed need a scorecard.
Most likely, just two players who took the field for last year’s opener will be back in their place for this season’s first game — Wilson Ramos at catcher and Ian Desmond at shortstop.
And just two more of the players who were on the field for last season’s opener will be there this year at different positions — Ryan Zimmerman, who moves from third base to first base, and Bryce Harper, who started last year in right field and will be in left field.
Who will likely be at third base on Opening Day? Maybe Yunel Escobar, who was not on the roster last year and was supposed to start this season at second base — where he still may be if manager Matt Williams decides to put Danny Espinosa at third instead.
Who may join Harper in the outfield? How about players to be named later — Michael Taylor, who is supposed to be at Triple-A Syracuse, Tony Gwynn Jr., who was out of a job until the Nationals signed him to a minor-league contract a few weeks ago, or Tyler Moore, who was fighting for a job on this team coming into spring training?
Better use a pencil to fill out that scorecard. There’s a chance someone not even in Viera this spring could wind up out there Monday.
This has been a MASH spring for the Nationals, with one player going down with injuries after another. Two starting outfielders, Jayson Werth and Denard Span, were off the table before spring even started. Werth is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery, and Span, who had offseason sports hernia surgery, followed that up with another operation for a stomach tear several weeks ago.
Then starting third baseman Anthony Rendon sprained a ligament in his left knee weeks ago and is traveling the country looking for a doctor who can somehow heal him — including the notorious Redskins Dr. Beanie, James Andrews.
We’re not done. There’s closer Drew Storen, who left Monday’s exhibition game against St. Louis with a toe blister, and new reliever Casey Janssen, who had an MRI for a sore shoulder. Even Zimmerman had a scare when he went down diving for a ground ball and got banged up last week. Though he is supposedly fine now, hangnails tend to require major surgeries with this team.
No one is burning any win totals in their lawns this year, if for no other reason than nobody in a Nationals uniform should be allowed near lighter fluid or any sharp objects.
All this carnage has resulted in a throwback Nationals camp in the final days of spring, to the days when they had to add extra lockers in the clubhouse because they had so many bodies. In those days, players like Dmitri Young and Ronnie Belliard would suddenly show up in camp.
Players are coming and going. Reliever Jerry Blevins was traded to the New York Mets for outfielder Matt den Dekker. Catcher Sandy Leon was dealt to the Boston Red Sox for a bag of cash. Outfielder Reed Johnson, after being released by the Miami Marlins, signed with the Nationals.
This is not a good look for a team that, going into spring training, had pretty much every job set and has been already crowned by many baseball observers as the National League East division champion and a World Series contender.
But this is where general manager Mike Rizzo earns his money.
It’s times like these when the roster — and the mattress known as Triple-A Syracuse, where they stuff players for emergencies — wins games, and as the architect of that roster, Rizzo’s personnel decisions will have to keep them afloat.
It’s nothing new for Rizzo. He had to do the same thing last year.
One silver lining about the Nationals’ carnage is that is happened in February and March. Last season, it happened in April and May.
The Nationals didn’t have their full roster of starting players on the field until late May. Pitcher Doug Fister started the season on the disabled list. Ramos batted cleanup on Opening Day last year and broke a bone in his left hand. A week later, pinch hitter Scott Hairston went on the disabled list with an oblique strain. Two weeks later, Zimmerman broke his thumb. Two weeks after that, Bryce Harper injured his thumb and had to have surgery. Then first baseman Adam LaRoche was sent to the disabled list with a right quad strain. As soon as Fister came back, pitcher Gio Gonzalez was on the disabled list with a sore shoulder.
Somehow, that Nationals team, walking wounded, spare parts and all, managed to 96 games and the NL East title.
So relax.
• Thom Loverro is co-host of “The Sports Fix,” noon to 2 p.m. daily on ESPN 980 and espn980.com.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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