The Washington Nationals faced Venezuela in an exhibition game on Wednesday night as the latter gears up for their time in the World Baseball Classic.
While it was nice to see the Nationals come away with a 5-1 win over a star-studded lineup that featured multiple high-end major leaguers, the storyline coming out of that contest is that manager Blake Butera might have given fans an idea of how Washington is going to look on Opening Day.
This was how the skipper situated things for that matchup:
-Nasim Nunez: 2B
-James Wood: LF
-CJ Abrams: SS
-Luis Garcia Jr: 1B
-Daylen Lile: RF
-Dylan Crews: CF
-Brady House: 3B
-Keibert Ruiz: DH
-Drew Millas: C
-Foster Griffin: SP
There are two clear spots that could change: the starting pitcher and catcher. Since Harry Ford is with Great Britain for the World Baseball Classic, he wasn’t an option to play on Wednesday. So that moved Drew Millas into the starting catcher role with Keibert Ruiz being the designated hitter. It’s almost guaranteed the starter will be different when the Nationals face the Chicago Cubs on March 26, but’s unclear if it will be Ford or Ruiz as the backstop.
As for the starting pitcher, there’s no doubt that Cade Cavalli is going to get the ball if he stays healthy for the rest of spring leading into Opening Day. Now the ace of this rotation following the MacKenzie Gore trade earlier in the offseason, this could be a breakout year for Cavalli.
But with those two things in mind, the alignment when it comes to the outfield and infield could be how Butera sets things to start the season even though there is a lot of time left during spring training that will impact his final decision.
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