Let the competition begin.
After almost two weeks of bullpen sessions, drills and batting practice, Nationals manager Manny Acta finally watched his players in a true game setting last night against the Florida Marlins.
“There’s a lot of positive energy at this camp,” said Acta by phone, a few hours before his team’s first spring training game of the year. “We know there’s a lot of good competition at different positions, first base, the [starting] rotation. This is when those questions finally start to get answered.”
Acta said first baseman Nick Johnson appears fully healed from the broken leg that cost him all of last season. But Dmitri Young, a surprise All-Star in 2007, is still the starter until Johnson not only proves his good health will last, but that he can produce at the same level he did before the injury.
The Nats also have decisions to make at middle infield, where second baseman Ronnie Belliard, shortstop Cristian Guzman and Felipe Lopez are fighting for playing time with recent signee Bret Boone lurking behind them. Not to mention a starting rotation that has eight hopefuls competing for five jobs, including Odalis Perez, who signed a minor-league contract last week.
“It’s challenging to make decisions like this,” Acta said. “But I like this situation a lot better than what we went through last spring.”
