James Wood

James Wood

22-Year-Old OutfielderOF
Washington Nationals
2025 Fantasy Outlook
The 2021 second-round pick made his MLB debut in 2024 and quickly adjusted to The Show with nine homers, 14 steals and a .264/.354/.427 slash line in 79 games. His upside for counting stats should get a boost if the Nationals make any significant additions to their lineup during the offseason. Wood turned 22 years old in September and showed good patience at the plate with an 11.7 percent walk rate, though he also had a 28.7 percent strikeout rate, which is consistent with his swing-and-miss tendencies from the minors. Wood exclusively played left field in his first taste of the majors, but more time at designated hitter could be in store if he's unable to improve upon the minus-seven DRS and minus-six OAA he posted in nearly 700 innings. There's still plenty of upside here given his raw power and strong early performance, but Wood's contact issues could be problematic as he gets more exposed to major-league pitching. Read Past Outlooks
RANKS
Rest of Season From Preseason
#49
ADP
$Signed a one-year contract with the Nationals in July of 2024.
Continues spring power display
OFWashington Nationals
March 17, 2025
Wood went 2-for-3 with a double, a two-run home run and a second run scored in Sunday's Grapefruit league game against the Rays.
ANALYSIS
The 22-year-old outfielder wasted no time in making an impact, taking Connor Seabold deep in the first inning. Wood has been raking this spring, batting .379 (11-for-29) with four doubles and four homers with a 4:9 BB:K. After slashing .264/.354/.427 in 79 games during his big-league debut last year, Wood could be poised to take a big step forward in 2025.
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Batting Stats
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2025
2024
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Batting Order Slot Breakdown
vs Right-Handed Pitchers
vs RHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
1
vs Left-Handed Pitchers
vs LHP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
Left/Right Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+29%
OPS vs RHP
2025
 
 
-100%
OPS vs RHP
2024
 
 
+30%
OPS vs RHP
2023
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023vs Left .659 125 12 1 13 6 .261 .320 .339
Since 2023vs Right .848 215 31 8 28 8 .262 .372 .475
2025vs Left 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2025vs Right .250 4 0 0 0 0 .000 .250 .000
2024vs Left .659 125 12 1 13 6 .261 .320 .339
2024vs Right .858 211 31 8 28 8 .267 .374 .483
2023vs Left 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023vs Right 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
More Splits View More Split Stats
Home/Away Batting Splits
Since 2023
 
 
+3%
OPS on Road
2025
 
 
-100%
OPS at Home
2024
 
 
+1%
OPS on Road
2023
No Stats
OPS PA R HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG
Since 2023Home .767 191 26 7 28 10 .249 .335 .432
Since 2023Away .787 149 17 2 13 4 .279 .376 .411
2025Home .250 4 0 0 0 0 .000 .250 .000
2025Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2024Home .777 187 26 7 28 10 .253 .337 .440
2024Away .787 149 17 2 13 4 .279 .376 .411
2023Home 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2023Away 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
More Splits View More Split Stats
Stat Review
How does James Wood compare to other hitters?
This section compares his stats with all batting seasons from the previous three seasons (minimum 400 plate appearances)*. The bar represents the player's percentile rank. For example, if the bar is halfway across, then the player falls into the 50th percentile for that stat and it would be considered average.

* Exit Velocity and Barrels/PA % are benchmarked against 2019 data (min 400 PA) and Hard Hit Rate is benchmarked against last season's data (min 400 PA). See here for more exit velocity/barrels stats plus an explanation of current limitations with that data set.
  • BB/K
    Walk to strikeout ratio
  • BB Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a walk.
  • K Rate
    The percentage of plate appearances resulting in a strikeout.
  • BABIP
    Batting average on balls in play. Measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits.
  • ISO
    Isolated Power. Slugging percentage minus batting average. A computation used to measure a batter's raw power.
  • AVG
    Batting average. Hits divided by at bats.
  • OBP
    On Base Percentage. A measure of how often a batters reaches base. Roughly equal to number of times on base divided by plate appearances.
  • SLG
    Slugging Percentage. A measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats.
  • OPS
    On base plus slugging. THe sum of a batter's on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
  • wOBA
    Weighted on-base average. Measures a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. wOBA combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value.
  • Exit Velocity
    The speed of the baseball as it comes off the bat, immediately after a batter makes contact.
  • Hard Hit Rate
    A measure of contact quality from Sports Info Solutions. This stat explains what percentage of batted balls were hit hard vs. medium or soft.
  • Barrels/PA
    The percentage of plate appearances where a batter had a batted ball classified as a Barrel. A Barrel is a batted ball with similar exit velocity and launch angle to past ones that led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage.
  • Expected BA
    Expected Batting Average.
  • Expected SLG
    Expected Slugging Percentage.
  • Sprint Speed
    The speed of a runner from home to first, in feet per second.
  • Ground Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are on the ground.
  • Line Drive %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are line drives.
  • Fly Ball %
    The percentage of balls put in play that are fly balls.
BB/K
1.00
 
BB Rate
25.0%
 
K Rate
25.0%
 
BABIP
.000
 
ISO
.000
 
AVG
.000
 
OBP
.250
 
SLG
.000
 
OPS
.250
 
wOBA
.173
 
Exit Velocity
0.0 mph
 
Hard Hit Rate
50.0%
 
Barrels/PA
0.0%
 
Expected BA
.000
 
Expected SLG
.000
 
Sprint Speed
0.0 ft/sec
 
Ground Ball %
100.0%
 
Line Drive %
0.0%
 
Fly Ball %
0.0%
 
Prospect Rankings History
Advanced Batting Stats
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Additional Stats
Games By Position
Defensive Stats
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Batted Ball Stats
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Stats Vs Upcoming Pitchers
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Recent RotoWire Articles Featuring James Wood See More
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8 days ago
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Jan Levine kicks off the column for 2025 and examines all the NL positional battles.
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26 days ago
Rankings from four RotoWire experts are combined into a consensus top-300, but there's no consensus about who should occupy the top spot.
Past Fantasy Outlooks
2024
2023
This may be the offseason to explore selling high on Wood. He has big tools (70-grade raw power, 55-grade speed, 55-grade arm), but his 33.7 K% and 61.6 Contact% at Double-A illustrate the risk involved with his hit tool. A 6-foot-6, 240-pound right fielder who can handle center field in the short term, Wood was one of the big prizes Washington received from San Diego in the Juan Soto trade. He hasn't flopped like Robert Hassell, but he also hasn't improved his stock like CJ Abrams and arguably MacKenzie Gore. So many young, toolsy hitting prospects had huge 2023 seasons in the upper levels without major contact issues, that it's hard to give Wood the benefit of the doubt just due to his age (won't turn 22 until September). Fortunately for the lefty slugger, the Nationals have a top-heavy big-league roster and a top-heavy farm system, so he'll get plenty of chances over the coming years, even if he struggles initially at the highest level. The most likely outcome is that he settles in as an everyday player who hits below .250 while hitting around 30 homers with double-digit steals during his peak seasons.
Wood could go down as the best player the Nationals received from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade. His massive frame (6-foot-7, 240 pounds) and propensity to strike out as an amateur led to long-term hit tool concerns entering the year. However, Wood's 20.7 K% and 14.3 BB% as a 19-year-old at Single-A have tabled any plate skill concerns for the time being. He uses the whole field and does a good job squaring the ball up (31.0 Hard%), and there's little debate he will be a big-time slugger at peak. In addition to monitoring Wood's hit tool as he faces better pitching, the way his plus speed ages will be something to track, as it's quite easy to envision him filling out to the point that he is more of a 10-to-15 steal threat early on in the majors. Wood plays center field now, but that's another aspect of his game he might outgrow. He is on track to reach the majors in 2024 or 2025, depending on how well he handles upper-level pitching.
More Fantasy News
Clubs first spring homer
OFWashington Nationals
March 6, 2025
Wood went 1-for-3 with a solo home run in Wednesday's Grapefruit League game against the Marlins.
ANALYSIS
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First spring start in left field
OFWashington Nationals
March 5, 2025
Wood (quad) is starting in left field and batting second in Wednesday's Grapefruit League contest versus the Marlins, Bobby Blanco of MASNSports.com reports.
ANALYSIS
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Getting another start at DH
OFWashington Nationals
Quadriceps
March 2, 2025
Wood (quadricep) will serve as the Nationals' designated hitter and No. 4 batter in Sunday's Grapefruit League game against the Astros.
ANALYSIS
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Slated to serve as DH on Friday
OFWashington Nationals
Quadriceps
February 27, 2025
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Thursday that Wood (quad) will serve as the team's designated hitter during Friday's game against the Mets, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com reports.
ANALYSIS
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Could serve as DH on Thursday
OFWashington Nationals
Quadriceps
February 25, 2025
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said Tuesday that Wood (quad) could be ready to serve as the team's designated hitter Thursday, Andrew Golden of The Washington Post reports.
ANALYSIS
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Latest Fantasy Rumors
Debut possible in 2024
OFWashington Nationals
October 20, 2023
Bobby Blanco of MASNSports.com believes there's a strong chance Wood makes his MLB debut in 2024.
ANALYSIS
Wood received an early promotion to the Double-A level in 2023 and initially struggled at Harrisburg, but he came alive over the final few months of the season with an .878 OPS in his last 50 games. The 21-year-old isn't likely to begin 2024 with the big-league club, but a strong showing early in the campaign could have him up in the majors before long.
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