Camp sights: Nationals hope to avoid bullpen dramatics

Paul White | USA TODAY Sports

Note: USA TODAY Sports' Paul White, via car, causeway, plane and rail, will eventually reach every major league camp this spring. Follow his exploits on Twitter - @PBJWhite - as he makes his way through the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues before he imparts all you didn't know about every team right here.

Today: The Washington Nationals

VIERA, Fla. – Only three locker stalls went unclaimed when the Washington Nationals opened camp last week.

One is next to Drew Storen, entering his sixth season in the Washington bullpen but his first without Tyler Clippard alongside.

"To be accurate, it would be on the other side," Storen says of where Clippard's locker had been in relation to his.

"We always kind of knew this day was coming, that it couldn't last forever," Storen says. "But when it does …"

All he can add is "Mm," through clenched lips, a muttered oath as abrupt as the January trade that sent Clippard to Oakland. So, as you face the line of lockers, from left to right it's who should handle the bulk of late-inning work for Washington this season: Storen, nobody, Matt Thornton and Casey Janssen.

Is that gap along the wall the elephant in the room for the Nationals?

Clippard, deposed closer Rafael Soriano and lefty Ross Detwiler accounted for 195 innings and finished 69 games last season.

Thornton, a 38-year-old lefty with a smattering of closer experience was picked up on waivers last August. Janssen, signed two weeks after Clippard's departure, had 81 saves over the last three years for Toronto but also is coming off his worst season since he became a bullpen guy five years ago.

Clippard's run of consistency and excellence is unprecedented. Nobody ever in the major leagues has pitched so often – 371 games – with an earned-run average as low as Clippard's 2.63 over a five-year period.

But it's Clippard, converted from a starter after Washington acquired him out of the Yankees system, who is closing in on free agency after this season – as are so many significant pieces of the Nationals' immediate future – and a year ahead of Storen.

It's Clippard who long ago defied the accepted volatility of bullpen pieces. Never mind approaching your roster construction with advanced baseball analytics. Look at this like an insurance actuary and it's clear every Clippard outing tempts fate.

Well, Storen has his share that aren't without their own real – as opposed to anticipated – drama.

The 2009 first-rounder (nine picks after Stephen Strasburg) has won and lost the ninth-inning job a couple of times but he's also coming off a 1.12 ERA that is by far his best yet.

It's not the body of work that creates optimism around Storen and the role that's his again. Moreso, it's something lost in another premature elimination from the postseason.

Storen blew the save in Game 2 of last year's NL Division Series against the Giants. That's the pivotal 18-inning game that gave San Francisco two road wins to open the series.

It also was Storen's second consecutive postseason blown save. Trouble is, the other one was nearly two years earlier when the Cardinals scored four in the ninth to eliminate Washington. For the talented team that hasn't yet lived up to expectations, a disturbing trend was brewing.

In between, Storen's job was given to Soriano, who ceded it back to Storen last season – in time for the game that could turn out to be most significant for the Nationals in their attempt to get a pos-season series victory.

Game 3 of the series with the Giants was Washington's only victory.

It got most notice as the night Bryce Harper began making his boldest statement yet that he indeed can be/will be "the man."

Harper homered and came back with a clutch game-tying shot in the seventh inning of Game 4 that just smacked of swagger before the Giants scratched out a series-clinching run.

Storen finished Game 3 – there's no save because he entered with a four-run lead. But he created his own de facto save by immediately allowing a single and double.

"You can't give in," Storen said that night in a succinct summary of his professional career to date.

He got a called third strike, sacrifice fly and broken-bat groundout to end the game.

"You can't change anything that happened," he said. "You say alright, we have to make the most of this."

It's an approach that holds true as the Nationals again carry huge expectations into a season. The ever-approachable Storen calmly accepts his role and all that comes with it – including one gap he's confident he's filled in.

"When things are going well, it's really easy, especially when you're young and you don't know any better," he says. "And then you get challenged. Ideal or not, if you get through it and get above it, it makes you better."

***

Roster rumblings

The full house in the clubhouse is intriguing for a team with a 25-man roster as close to set as any team in the majors. A bench spot could be up for grabs, maybe a second one for the time Jayson Werth could miss at that beginning of the season if he's not all the way back from shoulder surgery.

But there's plenty of experience – how about more than 20,000 plate appearances at Class AAA or above – among guys in the room who don't have big league jobs. And they're not just random, "Oh, yeah, him" names.

The combination of non-roster invitees Dan Uggla, Mike Carp, Kila Ka'aihue, Clint Robinson and Ian Stewart accounts for 8,539 plate appearances in the majors and another 11,709 at AAA. And Ka'aihue has 600 more in Japan.

It's not like they're all the same guy, but consider that four of the Nationals' NRIs – Carp, Ka'aihue, Robinson and hot-prospect-turned-25-year-old Matt Skole -- are left-handed hitting first basemen. And lefty Stewart has played some first along with third.

There's a method in what's hardly madness. Right-handed Ryan Zimmerman is taking over first base and the Washington lineup is all right-handed except outfielders Denard Span and Bryce Harper.

Tyler Moore, the first baseman-outfielder who's been on the shuttle to and from Class AAA with mixed results, also is right-handed. The one bench lefty is Nate McLouth, coming off a career-low .173 and at 33 older than any of the NRIs except Uggla.

Prospect Brian Goodwin, another lefty, also is in camp but his current role is showing the Nationals where his center field capabilities might fit should Span leave as a free agent after this season.

Carp has played enough outfield to give him an advantage over the other guys auditioning but there could be room for one of these guys who can show merely the ability to effectively pinch-hit.

**

Backstop

The Nationals rotation justifiably gets plenty of attention. But what about the guy who has to catch them?

Wilson Ramos came to the majors in the Twins organization with a big-time offensive reputation. Like many young catchers (he's 27 now with four full seasons on the Nationals roster), hitting is secondary to developing behind-the-plate skills, especially with such a strong pitching staff.

Baltimore's Matt Wieters still hasn't matched the impact power-and-average combo he displayed in the minors. St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak maintains Yadier Molina's offense developed slowly because he was always playing catch-up after being promoted through the organization based on his defensive skills.

Ramos hasn't had a breakout season with the bat yet. In fact, he's barely had a season, period. After 435 plate appearances in 2011, injuries have limited him to an average of 253 the past three years. And it's mostly his hamstrings to blame.

"I don't have any problem when I'm behind the plate, only when I'm running hard," Ramos says. "The doctor told me the legs were too strong, the muscles were too tight. He told me to do more with agility, to make my muscles soft and light."

That's been his focus all winter and Ramos is predicting, "This is the year to catch 120, 130 games."

Still, though, his attention will be on working with the pitchers, especially learning the nuances and preferences of newcomer Max Scherzer.

"It takes a lot of time to learn how (opponents) hit, what they like to hit, how your guys throw," Ramos says. "You have to think quick. I feel like I have a quick mind. I remember hitters. I know what they want to do, what they hit and I know the pitchers' plan."

As for the hitting?

"You can go to the cage for 20 minutes and work on everything you need to work on," he says.

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