The Nationals Need James Wood to Become Their Best Player

Although it was their fifth losing season in a row, there was at least one tiny silver lining for the 2024 Washington Nationals. It was the first time since winning the World Series in 2019 that they climbed out of the NL East cellar.

The Nationals finished with a 71-91 record for the second-consecutive season but were able to leapfrog the Marlins to finish fourth in their division.

Further signs of improvement, despite an identical record to the previous year, were evident by the fact that they increased their run differential from -145 to -104. No, that’s still not ideal but was a step in the right direction.

And even though it’s been half a decade since Washington has finished a season with a winning record, there are reasons to believe that the team’s stock can continue rising in 2025.

The Nationals have a decent enough starting rotation returning this season, especially after cutting the one piece of dead weight in veteran Patrick Corbin. And though they non-tendered their All-Star closer in Kyle Finnegan, they brought in an effective reliever in Jorge Lopez to replace him.

Speaking of replacements, Washington was also able to upgrade a big weak spot on offense. They moved on from Joey Gallo, who batted an unsightly .161 with a .613 OPS in 2024, and replaced him with Nathaniel Lowe, who has a career .272 average and .789 OPS in six MLB seasons.

The biggest reason for optimism, though, is the youth. The Nationals have been stockpiling young talent since they got a haul back from their trade of Juan Soto to the Padres in 2022 and parlayed poor records into high draft picks. Now that youth movement is starting to hit the majors.

Washington has seen multiple top prospects make their MLB debuts over the last couple of seasons. One highly anticipated debut that was made just last year was that of outfielder James Wood.

Wood, the team’s top prospect to end the 2023 season according to MLB Pipeline, debuted on July 1 and made a quick impact, collecting his first multi-hit outing in the third game of his career and his first homer and multi-RBI outing in his sixth game.

At just 21 years old for most of the year, Wood finished his inaugural season with a .264 average and .781 OPS with 13 doubles, four triples, and nine homers in 79 games. And if the Nationals truly want to take that huge leap in 2025, he might be the biggest key to them actually doing so.

To take the next step, the Nationals need James Wood to break out and become their best player.

The Nationals have a number of young offensive players with the potential to become future stars.

Besides Wood there is shortstop CJ Abrams, who already has an All-Star appearance to his name, outfielder Dylan Crews, the second overall pick in 2023, third baseman Brady House, who went 11th overall in 2021, and more.

But Wood has the chance to be the best all-around player in future Washington lineups. A look at his minor league scouting report, not to mention his numbers, shows exactly why.

MLB Pipeline gave Wood an overall 60 grade back in 2023 with above average grades in every category, which included 60-grade speed and power. Those tools helped him to an impressive .302 average and .941 OPS for his 283-game minor league career.

As a major leaguer, Wood didn’t play enough games to qualify for many advanced stats. But if he did, he would’ve been among the elite in average exit velocity, hard hit rate, chase rate, walk rate, and sprint speed, while being well above-average in a number of others per Baseball Savant.

Upper echelon MLB teams have at least one all-around player like that to build a lineup around to find the type of success that they do. Outside of Soto, Washington hasn’t had many of those types of players in recent years. But in the 2010s they did.

From 2012 to 2019, the Nationals finished no lower than second in the NL East. It’s not hard to see why, because from Ryan Zimmerman to Jayson Werth to Anthony Rendon to Bryce Harper to Trea Turner to Soto, Washington had big talent to lead the way from year to year.

Washington’s division is another huge reason why they need every bit of firepower they can get. The NL East had three teams make the 2024 playoffs in the Phillies, Braves, and Mets. Three teams from the division made the playoffs in each of the two seasons before that as well.

And look at the top tier offensive talent on last year’s NL East playoff teams. Harper, Turner, and Kyle Schwarber on the Philles. Ronald Acuna, Matt Olson, and Marcell Ozuna on the Braves. Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso on the Mets. Good teams need that strong offensive core.

To ascend to the level of that trio of teams, the Nationals will need their core to start to look the same. Wood 100% has the ability to be the leader of his team’s core and have a big break out season in 2025. If he does, the other talented youngsters in the organization just might follow.