Veteran appears to be insurance with injuries mounting Viera, Fla. — The Nationals have yet to express public concern over the health of outfielder Michael Morse and first baseman Adam LaRoche.
But on a day when the team learned LaRoche is at least a week away from returning to a major league spring training game with a bone bruise and cartilage pain in his left foot, it is a telling comment on Washington’s depth that it signed veteran outfielder Xavier Nady to a minor league contract.
Nady, 33, played for the Arizona Diamondbacks last season but was limited to just 82 games after breaking his left hand in mid-August. The year before he struggled with the Chicago Cubs and in 2009 he appeared in just seven games with the New York Yankees after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair a ruptured elbow ligament. For now, he is expected to start the season at Triple-A Syracuse.
“[Nady has] been an accomplished major league player in the past,” Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said. “He’s a versatile guy who can play several positions. He’s a terrific guy to have in the clubhouse and a good presence, a major league veteran and a guy that can swing the bat from the right side and play the four corner positions.”
And that could be necessary given the state of the team’s corner positions. There are 18 days left until Opening Day in Chicago against the Cubs. Morse has not appeared in a game since March 13 with a strained right lat muscle. Monday is a full day off for all players, and he was not listed on the traveling roster for Tuesday’s game at the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie. He can swing a bat against minor league competition but is also expected to sit out another week of big league games with his throwing restricted.
Nats manager Davey Johnson has said no injured player will return to game action until he successfully gets through a workout in front of him and then takes a day off. Outfielder Rick Ankiel, dealing with a strained left hamstring since March 9, followed that formula and is expected to play against the Mets. Not so for LaRoche. But he insists that the pain in his foot would not keep him out of the lineup during the regular season.
“It’s still a nagging thing, and we’re going to nip that in the bud,” Johnson said of LaRoche’s foot injury.
Another outfield option was taken away when top prospect Bryce Harper was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse after an 11-7 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Space Coast Stadium on Sunday. With Jayson Werth sticking in right field, according to Johnson, that leaves Ankiel, Roger Bernadina and Brett Carroll competing for time in the outfield. Mark DeRosa can play there some, too. But the only viable first baseman available if neither Morse nor LaRoche heal as hoped is Chad Tracy.
