Washington Nationals 'Being Extra Cautious' With Minor Injury Star Player Picked Up
The Washington Nationals have one of the best young cores in the entire MLB, and a primary component in that group is outfielder James Wood, who was strong in his 2024 debut.
This morning there was a report that Wood sat out the defensive drills for the Nationals, and was only taking batting drills instead, as was said by Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports. This was marginally concerning given Wood is a key contributor to the team, and also a breakout candidate for the 2025 season as he looks to build upon his 79-game rookie year.
Zuckerman would follow this report with further information, reporting that Wood's injury is quad tendinitis, as stated by manager Dave Martinez. He would further clarify that Wood has the green light on batting, and is rather only limited in running and that the team is purely being cautious.
This news is generally positive given the injury seems to only be a minor one at the moment, and Wood is still able to get his batting practice in while working through spring training. If he were to miss both batting and running for some time it would be more of something worth noting, but given he already has strong performance on the basepaths with 14 steals in his rookie year and four triples, that is not hugely worrying.
Wood had an exceptional 2024 season between AAA Rochester and the MLB level, ensuring he was called up to the big leagues with an outstanding 52-game stretch at the lower level. In Rochester, he had .353/.463/1.058 batting splits, with 37 RBI, 44 runs, 10 home runs, 42 strikeouts to 40 walks and 10 stolen bases. On top of that, he proved outfield versatility by playing all three positions on the grass and did not accrue a single error in 393.1 innings, with two assists and one double play forced.
This immense success led to his promotion on the first day of July, and he came out swinging, putting together .264/.354/.781 batting splits, 43 runs, 41 RBI, 97 strikeouts to 39 walks, 14 stolen bases, and nine home runs. The biggest struggle was making contact at times, as despite a solid batting average and on base percentage, the approximately 2.5 strikeouts per walk ratio was less than optimal.
That comes with the territory of being a rookie however, and at 22 years of age, he has plenty of time to work that out of his game. Given the chance to have a full training camp and offseason with the major league roster should help fix things up for him, and could turn him into one of the best rising stars in the game.
