James Wood Provides Nationals and Their Fans Plenty To Feel Good About

It is never an easy thing moving on from superstar players, which the Washington Nationals know firsthand.

After trading Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, they completed the signaling of their rebuild by trading Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres in another blockbuster.

Moving on from players of that caliber was a difficult but necessary decision for the franchise to make.

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Unfortunately for the Nationals, the deal with the Dodgers hasn’t yielded as positive results as the franchise had hoped.

Two of the players, pitcher Gerardo Carrillo and outfielder Donovan Casey, have yet to appear in the Major Leagues. Catcher Keibert Ruiz has struggled and starting pitcher Josiah Gray is recovering from Tommy John surgery after being an All-Star in 2023.

When making trades of that magnitude, a team is hoping to come across a player near the caliber of the one they are parting ways with.

It may not have happened on the first try, but on the second deal with the Padres, Washington struck gold.

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Shortstop CJ Abrams was an All-Star in 2024. MacKenzie Gore has developed into a true ace and the best strikeout pitcher in baseball.

Receiving two players that talented is great; adding a third that looks like a bona fide superstar puts it over the top.

Also included in that deal was left fielder James Wood, who has taken the baseball world by storm with one eye-popping home run at a time.

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Measured at an imposing 6-foot-7 and 234 pounds, he is beginning to tap into his incredible power potential in his first full season as a Major Leaguer.

Wood played well in 2024 during his much-anticipated debut, slashing .264/.354/.427 with nine home runs, 13 doubles, four triples and 14 stolen bases to go along with 41 RBI in 336 plate appearances.

He had an OPS+ of 123 and bWAR of 1.1.

In 348 plate appearances in 2025, he has taken his production to another stratosphere.

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Wood has a .284/.379/.569 slash line with an OPS+ of 167 and bWAR of 3.9.

He has launched 22 home runs to go along with 19 doubles, already knocking in 61 runs.

Consistently hitting the ball hard, there are still more levels he can reach. The power numbers are impressive, even more so when taking into consideration that he is still hitting ground balls 50.7% of the time, well above the league average of 41.8%.

His fly ball rate of 24.9% is still below the league average of 26.4% as well.

Already looking the part of an All-Star, this early production is making Harold Reynolds, who predicted Wood would be a future member of Cooperstown, look less outlandish than originally believed.

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