The sight of Daniel Murphy on the field at Nationals Park this afternoon, hitting balls over the fence during batting practice and moving well as he fielded grounders at second base, could be viewed as nothing but encouraging for a team and a fan base desperate for a boost to their struggling lineup.

But the sight of Murphy pulling up short of first base as he tried to run after getting his surgically repaired right knee worked on by a trainer and abruptly halting today’s workout could be viewed as nothing but discouraging for a team and a fan base that apparently is going to have to wait longer for his return.

Murphy, who had microfracture surgery on his right knee October 20, just returned to Washington on Monday after two weeks at extended spring training in West Palm Beach. The suggestion was that he was close to heading out on a rehab assignment with one of the Nationals’ minor league affiliates.

And Murphy’s initial work this afternoon seemed to back up that notion. Though he appeared to swinging more with his hands than his legs, he still drove the ball in BP and sent a couple over the fence. And during a long fielding session at second base, he appeared to be moving around well, with a hop in his step.

But then came the final test, during which Murphy joined fellow injured infielder Anthony Rendon running out of the batter’s box. Rendon went home-to-second several times with no trouble, and manager Davey Martinez said later the third baseman is likely ready to go on a rehab assignment in the next few days.

Murphy, though, only ran from home-to-first, at times concluding with an awkward turn and stop around the bag. At one point, he lay down near first base and had director of medical services Harvey Sharman work on his knee for several minutes before getting back up and attempting to run again.

On that final attempt, Murphy pulled up after about 50-to-60 feet, spoke to trainers, gathered his belongings and returned to the clubhouse. Approached by reporters a few minutes later, he said he had more work to do and retreated to the trainer’s room.

“Obviously his progression program, he’s staying with it,” Martinez said when asked later in the afternoon for an update on both Murphy and Rendon. “He ran today. He hit today. He’s going to continue to do that until we feel he’s ready. I’m excited about Rendon. Rendon looks like he’s pretty good. He looks like he’s going to be ready to go. We’ll see how he feels today. But he might end up going on a rehab assignment here soon.”

Asked if Murphy had suffered any setbacks, Martinez replied: “This is the track he was on. We got so gung-ho because he was doing so good at first, but they said this is a minimum of six months, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Murphy is now 6 1/2 months removed from his surgery, an unconventional procedure only a few other major leaguers (most notably Justin Turner and Grady Sizemore) have had, with mixed results.

In other injury news ...

* After doing extensive work on the field during last week’s West Coast road trip, Adam Eaton has been mostly out of sight this week at home. Martinez said the left fielder, who went on the disabled list April 9 with a bone bruise in his left ankle, is not performing baseball activities right now, suggesting it will be a while before he returns.

“Right now, we want to get this bruise totally out of there before he starts anything else,” the manager said. “Because it’s kind of like a come-and-go thing. We were in L.A. and he felt good one day, then one day he didn’t feel good. We’re just going to kind of limit his activities right now, and hopefully here soon he’ll get back to baseball activities.”

* Brian Goodwin, out since April 11 with a bruised left wrist, has been in West Palm Beach for more than a week but has not swung a bat in several days due to a recurrence of pain. “I guess he had a little setback and he stopped hitting for a while,” Martinez said. “Now it looks like he’s doing a lot better. So it looks like he’s probably going to hit here in the next few days.”