Top Washington Nationals Rookie Regarded As “Emerging Star” in Power Rankings

The future is bright for one Washington Nationals rookie has made a great first impression.

Sep 5, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Washington Nationals left fielder James Wood (29) warms up before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

At this point of the 2024 season, the Washington Nationals are just playing out the string. With less than a 0.1 percent chance of making the postseason, there will be more to focus on than wins and losses over the final few weeks.

The most important thing for the Nationals will be how their young players finish the campaign.

Washington needs to start evaluating who will and won’t be part of their core moving forward. There are a lot of promising young players to build around, as several are showing improvements in recent weeks.

One of the players who will assuredly be part of their long-term plans is outfielder James Wood. Acquired in the Juan Soto blockbuster deal from the San Diego Padres, he made his MLB debut on July 1.

The highly-touted prospect, who was ranked as high as No. 7 at outlets, has not disappointed in his first taste of the Major Leagues.

Listed at a towering 6’7” and 234 pounds, the rare blend of strength and athleticism has been on full display. Through 60 games and 256 plate appearances, Wood has a slash line of .274/.367/.413 with five home runs, three triples, 10 doubles and 12 stolen bases.

That production is enough for the IMG Academy product to land on Kiley McDaniel’s list of top rookies during the 2024 season. He ranked the young stars over at ESPN and Wood came in at No. 7.

That section of the rankings was titled “Emerging Stars”. Joining the Washington standout is Jackson Holliday of the Baltimore Orioles, Wyatt Langford of the Texas Rangers and Junior Caminero of the Tampa Bay Rays, ranked 4, 5 and 6.

“Wood's defensive metrics are worse than I expected, but he has done the most of this group at the plate in the big leagues thus far,” McDaniel wrote.

He has played exclusively in left field since coming up to the big leagues. The numbers to this point are not great, as Wood is a negative in every defensive stat shared on Baseball-Reference.

But, that speaks volumes about the work that he has done at the plate. Despite underwhelming returns with the glove, the star rookie has produced a 1.0 WAR.

Wood has cemented himself as a cornerstone for the Nationals moving forward. He has batted below fifth in the lineup only five times and not once since August 7th, as Dave Martinez has penciled him in at No. 2, 3 or 4 every day since August 14th.