Nelson Cruz officially became the DH in D.C. on Thursday, joining the club in West Palm Beach, FL, where the 41-year-old, 17-year veteran met his new teammates and manager at the Washington Nationals’ Spring Training facility. Cruz, who got a 1-year/$15M contract from the rebooting ballclub showed up ready to go in an abbreviated build-up for the 2022 campaign, following the 99-day lockout before MLB and the MLBPA agreed on a new CBA.
“I talked to him today and — a little bit — I’m going to speak to him some time tonight or tomorrow and see, but he said he just needed a day or two to get acclimated,” Nats’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters in his daily press briefing, “… but he said I can put him in the game whenever we deem he’s ready.