Washington Nationals news & notes: Stone Garrett makes it back at the end…

Notes and quotes on Stone Garrett returning from a nasty injury to get some at-bats late this season…

Stone Garrett returned to the field for Spring Training this year, only months after he’d suffered a broken left fibula and a torn ligament in his ankle trying to make a play at the outfield wall in Yankee Stadium in late August 2023.

Garrett, 28, who debuted in the majors in 2022, after a long, unique road to the big leagues, told reporters when he came up for the final days of the 2024 campaign, it was like debuting again.

“It’s like getting called up to the big leagues again,” Garrett said, as quoted by MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. “Honestly, it feels like the first time I ever got called up.”

Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images

“He’s worked really hard,” Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez told reporters once Garrett got the call to return late this past September. “That first injury — when that injury occurred, it was pretty nasty. When I saw him in Spring Training doing all the stuff he did, I thought, man, that’s incredible, a testament to how hard he’s worked, but it’s taken him a long time to really get it right. And so to have him come back here with us for a few days, it’s awesome. He’s that guy. He works his tail off to get himself ready, to help. He spent all year just trying to get better and really trying to get his leg right, so I’m proud of him. He worked his way back which is great.”

Garrett too acknowledged that as hard as he worked to be ready to go for Spring Training, and impressive as it was to get back out there quickly as he did, he did rush things a bit.

“There was a point when I came back where I wasn’t thinking about competing. I was just surviving,” he told reporters.

“That’s when I knew I probably rushed it back too soon. Which was fine. I wanted to compete. Nobody rushed me back. I wanted to compete.”

Garrett spent the year at Triple-A, trying to get 100% healthy, and he did get back at the end.

“I wanted to just kind of get him out there and I felt like he deserves an opportunity to get back out there,” Martinez said after pencilling Garrett into the lineup for the first time in over a year. “Hey, he did really good things for us last year until he got hurt, he worked his way back and I wanted to get him some at-bats today.

Garrett homered in his first plate appearance of the season and went 3 for 5 with a double and a walk as well in the two games he did play.

“I’m so happy for him,” Martinez said after Garrett went 3 for 4 with the double and home run in the first game. “Like I said earlier, he worked really hard to get back. For him to go up there and do what he did today was amazing. It really was. This is a testament about who he is and how he is. He loves the game. He loves the game, he loves hitting, wants to win. Today was an unbelievable performance. Like I said, he worked really hard to get back up here, got a chance to DH, get some at-bats, and did really well.”

Now it’s another winter of work as he tries to get as close as he can to what he was before the injury.

“He’s still got to work,” Martinez said.

“That was a significant injury, so he’s got to work this winter to keep getting better, keep getting stronger. I know he still feels like he’s still got that little limp in there when he runs. I don’t know if that’s ever going to go away, but he’s got to keep the rest of his body in good shape, like he always does.”

There’s no doubt in Martinez’s mind that Garrett will put in the work, and even if it ends up he can’t return to 100% of his pre-injury self, he could still contribute to a big league roster.

“I think time will tell, I really do. I think I saw enough in Spring Training when he was trying to come back that he can be,” the player he was, Martinez said, “… but we’ll see how he gets through the winter and we’ll see how he comes back.”