WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The Nationals will enter Wednesday's off-day -- their first of the spring -- with 11 Grapefruit League games under their belt and Opening Day just over three weeks away.

General manager and president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo recently spoke to MLB.com about a range of topics on the back fields of FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.

On spring's primary goal
"The goal is to prepare ourselves to win another world championship. That's our plan every year we come in here. We're not treating this Spring Training any different than any other Spring Training we've ever had here. Our goal is to be prepared on March 26 to defend our title and prepare ourselves for the grind."

On easing back pitchers
"We've pretty much stayed on our same course of preparing guys. Now, fortunately, a lot of our rotation is veteran-laden guys, so they kind of took care of that portion of it, easing themselves into it pre-Spring Training when they got ready for Spring Training. I know some of them may have started their offseason throwing program a little bit later, but once we hit the ground running here, we had the same plan that we've always had to get those guys prepared."

On what he has seen so far
"We're a very veteran-laden team. They know how to prepare for the season. They'll be ready for the season. It's a balance to get the players the at-bats and innings they need without rushing them to get to those innings. The important thing is to be perfectly ready come Opening Day, and that's all we care about is winning games from Opening Day on. Here's preparation, and we're in a unique situation where we've got such a veteran-laden team that we're going to rely on them to guide us in how to get them ready."

• Box score: Nationals 5, Orioles 3

On limited roster openings
"We have some competitions in the bullpen and the rotation, and that type of thing. We have to be prepared. One injury changes your world. We have to always be tweaking and preparing and having good ideas to increase our chances to win again. I think [Trea Turner] was hurt game four for about two months [last season]. It's important."

On Carter Kieboom's spring
"He's had great conversations with [manager Dave Martinez]. He's a very cerebral player, he's a very intelligent guy. He's got great baseball IQ. He knows what's going on. He just has to relax and let his abilities shine. Again, though, he's learning a brand-new position at the big league level and trying to hit and adjust to Major League pitching [while] trying to make a team that just won the World Series. There's a lot of things on his plate, but we have a lot of confidence in him. He's going to be a really good player for us for a really long time. It's just interesting to me to see the evolution of him. It's no joke switching positions, and switching from shortstop to third base is not an easy transformation."

On the different feel of spring
"The one thing that I always like about Spring Training is the stress of winning and losing games is very much different than a regular season. I take solace in the fact that we're preparing for the games, we love to win these games. But if you don't, you don't wear the loss as you do in the regular season."

On spring vs. regular-season schedule
"Once the season starts, you're done. I just like to relax, [be in] nature [during Spring Training]. Getting up at 5 in the morning to get here, by 10 o'clock [p.m.], I'm about ready to go to sleep. It's kind of a 'Groundhog Day' type of scenario where you get up, you do your thing in the office, you watch your game, you talk afterwards, you've got some after workouts, you try to get to the gym and be healthy. You have dinner, all of a sudden it's 9:30 and [you say], 'I've got to get up at 5, so I might as well go to sleep.'"