Injured Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy is eight games into a rehab assignment in Double-A Harrisburg.
After undergoing offseason surgery on his right knee, Murphy has yet to return to the big-league roster more than two months in the regular season.
"We expect him to be back this year, soon, and to help us, but we want him back here 100 percent," said Nats GM Mike Rizzo during his weekly appearance with The Sports Junkies, sponsored by Burke & Herbert Bank.
Skepticism grew about Murphy returning to the Nationals soon once video surfaced last Sunday of the second baseman running gingerly through a minor-league game.
Here's some spliced video off the MiLB feed from the last two days...tell me he looks healthy...in the first one, he struggles to even get to a routine grounder and then can't get anything on the throw off his right leg pic.twitter.com/tg0Gnw6nuY
— Mick Reinhard (@Mayflies) June 3, 2018"He's been hitting a lot, so the hitting portion of it should be fine," Rizzo said. "The lateral movement on defense is something that we're concentrating on, and the deceleration when he runs is something we're concentrating on. When he's in burst mode and sprint mode he's fine, it's the deceleration that he's worried about. He's got to trust that the knee is healthy, because your mind will not allow the knee to perform at an optimal level until your instincts kick in and you have to do it naturally. We're just waiting for that."
"I think it's repetitions and strengthening the knee. Just playing a full nine-inning game is an accomplishment, and once he does that back-to-back days and can handle the grind of a season, then I think you'll see him back. We don't want to bring him back and have him getting prepared to play at the Major League level. We'll prepare him on his rehab, we'll bring him back and he'll be ready to go when he gets here."
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