WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — There was a time when Dave Martinez could walk through the Washington Nationals’ spring training clubhouse and see heavyweights everywhere — especially in Veterans Corner. There was Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Anthony Rendon, Trea Turner. Nearby, across the room, were Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
Now Veterans Corner includes players with minor league contracts, like Eddie Rosario, the former Atlanta Braves 2021 National League Championship Series outfielder who arrived Friday after signing a non-guaranteed minor league deal.
Strasburg, physically unable to pitch, is not here, but he still has his locker, as this ridiculous contract dispute that the Lerner family created plays itself out. His uniform remains hanging in the locker, along with his cleats on the floor. A chair sits in front of the locker with a “Players Alliance” T-shirt draped over it.
Still, Martinez can smile when he walks through the clubhouse because just as the Nationals manager enters the room there on the right are the lockers of Dylan Crews, James Wood, Robert Hassell III, Brady House, Darren Baker and Trey Lipscomb, all one tight after the other.
The Nationals are optimistic that those young players eventually will take over the team’s Veterans Corner. For now, though, the group in front of the row of lockers on the right has its own identity.
“We call it Hope Row,” Martinez said. “They are going to be the future of our organization.”
It’s hard not to get excited seeing this group in person. It may be the most talented group of young position players the Nationals have ever had in their system — and they seem to feed off one another, talking and laughing and enjoying their presence together in a big-league camp.
“They all get along really well,” Martinez said. “They are very close and talk to each other a lot. They’re eager to learn, they want to get better. They play the game the right way. And they’re coming.”
When? That’s what Washington fans want to know. As general manager Mike Rizzo continues to be forced by ownership to shop in the free agency bargain bin for players like Rosario — a player I think is a good signing — fans are grumbling about the low-cost veterans being in the way of the arrival of the young stars.
“We don’t see it like that,” Martinez said. “To get a guy like Eddie, he’s been to the playoffs and the World Series. He can do a lot of really good things on the field. It’s awesome to have.
“We’re going to see our kids play in the major leagues for a long time and they are going to play together for a long time,” he said. “But we still have a little time for them to marinate a little bit. I think we’ll see them sooner than later. They still have a lot of things they have to work on.
“I watch Wood play every day, Dylan Crews, Hassell and the others. They’ve got that ‘it.’ They’re hungry and understand how to play the game, the importance of doing the little things correctly — running the bases, playing good defense.”
Martinez, 59, will likely be here to see them in the Nationals’ major league clubhouse in Washington. He signed a two-year contract extension in August 2023, with a club option for a third.
He is entering his seventh season as Nationals manager, which makes him the longest-tenured manager since the franchise moved from Montreal to Washington in 2005. It also puts him among the top managers in baseball (seventh) with tenure with one club.
He has gone from being the coach with the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago Cubs who had been passed over eight times for managing jobs before the Nationals hired him in 2018 to now one of the grizzled (he has a healthy-looking beard working) veterans of the league.
Does he think back to all those doors closing on him?
“Yes, like it was yesterday,” Martinez said. “The interviewing part is part of the process of becoming a good manager. I talk to guys who are looking to be managers in the future, and I tell those guys, Don’t get discouraged if after the first or second one you don’t get the job. Just keep going after it, keep learning from each one and get better from it.
“There are so many good young managers in the game today who know the game well,” he said. “We get together when there are meetings, and we share our stories on how everyone got where they are and how we manage and our style. There are a lot of similarities, but one thing I’ve got to tell you is they are all passionate about the game and what they do.”
No one has ever questioned Martinez’s passion, even in a 107-game losing season. But it’s no fun being the only guy preaching hope in a season of hopelessness.
Hope Row should change that.
You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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