Notes from Camp - Feb. 17

The Nationals continued their work in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday with their second full-squad workout. In addition to live batting practice, the group also had their chance to test the new automated balls and strikes challenge system.

"We're kind of worked on the challenge system a little bit where we had a bad umpire, myself, behind home plate in the stadium calling balls and strikes and let them challenge if they felt like it was an incorrect call," Manager Blake Butera said. "Just to kind of get the hang of that. So that was one thing for both our pitchers, catchers and hitters to start kind of learning the zone a little bit and which pitches they should challenge or whatnot."

Field 1, Field 2 and the stadium field saw a rotation of batting practice, defensive drills, pickoffs and rundowns, as well as more live BP sessions. Mitchell Parker, PJ Poulin, Orlando Ribalta, Tyler Baum, Paxton Schultz and Eddie Yean all took to the mound against live hitters.

The work continues on Wednesday, with only three more days until the first games of the 2026 Grapefruit League season. The Nationals will face the Houston Astros at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches at 1:05 p.m. ET, a game that can be streamed for free on Nationals.TV and listened to on Nationals.com.