Exhale Nationals fans, the wait is finally over! The Nationals plan to promote outfielder James Wood to make his major league debut Monday against the Mets. The 21-year old is still scheduled to play with Triple-A Rochester this weekend, as he will be monitored closely in hopes of keeping him healthy before he joins the team in D.C. Wood’s promotion was first reported by Grant Paulson from 106.7 The Fan. Wood is the Nationals top prospect and ranked third by ITD overall. This has the makings of a highly anticipated debut for Nats fans since acquiring the slugging lefty as a cornerstone asset in the trade made in August 2022 that sent Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego.
Wood has been on a tear all year smashing Triple-A pitching making this an inevitable decision for the Nats to make at this point of the season. In 51 total games, he’s batting .346 with a .458 on-base percentage, 10 home runs, 34 RBIs, 10 stolen bases and a whopping 1.036 OPS. Wood has improved on that performance this season in Triple-A, cutting his strikeout rate from 30% to 17% and raising his walk rate from 12% to 17%. A promotion could have been targeted at an early date this season, but after suffering a hamstring injury on May 23, it set back that plan of attack. After missing four weeks in the injured list, he returned on June 18 (the same day that Dylan Crews was also promoted to Rochester). In six games since being inserted, Wood is 5-for-19 with one home run, four walks, four strikeouts.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances over the weekend in Tampa Bay this weekend, when Wood arrives he’ll join shortstop CJ Abrams and left-hander MacKenzie Gore (scheduled to start Monday) who were also apart of the trade with San Diego will now get an opportunity to play together with the Nats for the first time. We are not aware of any roster moves yet as those will be announced after this road trip. As for playing time purposes, the safest bet is that he will take over left field, bumping Jesse Winker to the primary DH role possibly platooning with newly rostered Harold Ramirez. There also could be the platoon option in the outfield. With Jacob Young’s emergence being an everyday outfielder in center and Lane Thomas holding it down in right — the struggling veteran Eddie Rosario could be the odd man out. Something to monitor over the course of the next three days.
