Washington Nationals at New York Mets: Grapefruit League GameThread

Juan Soto was lifted early in last night’s game with a calf issue, but it was done out of an abundance of caution according to manager Davey Martinez, who said that they would wait before making any decision on whether or not the Washington Nationals’ 22-year-old right fielder would play today.

“He had a right calf cramp-age, so we took him out of the game. I didn’t want to take any chances,” Martinez said last night.

“We’ll reevaluate tomorrow. He said he felt fine, but I want to make sure that he gets treatment and then we’ll see him tomorrow.”

The big thing, right now, is to make sure everyone stays as healthy as possible with Opening Day less than a week away.

So when this sort of thing happens, do they handle it differently than they might otherwise, since it’s so close to the season opener?

“We still want to make sure that they’re ready and healthy. We’ve still got some days left,” Martinez said.

“We can do some different things to keep them ready as far as the swing and things of that nature, but he’s got to be — we want to make sure that this doesn’t become a bigger issue.”

In Soto’s case, this calf issue is something that just came up, so they’ll be careful with him.

“It’s a new thing,” Martinez explained. “Like I said, hopefully it’s a cramp and tomorrow he feels fine, like I said, we’ll reevaluate him and see how he feels tomorrow.”

So is Soto making the trip to Port St. Lucie, FL for tonight’s matchup with the New York Mets?

“I think we’re going to see how it feels today, if I can play tonight, or I’m going to wait until Sunday,” Soto said this afternoon.

HERE’S THE NATIONALS’ LINEUP FOR TONIGHT’S GAME: